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THE HOUSE WITH THE SILVER DOOR. 
WHEN KNIGHTS WERE BOLD. 

DIXIE KITTEN. 

AN OLD, OLD STORY-BOOK. 

THE CHAUCER STORY BOOK. 

LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN. 
AMERICAN HERO STORIES. 

THE STORY OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE. 
THE STORY OF THE GREEK PEOPLE. 
THE GOLDEN GOOSE AND OTHER FAIRY 
TALES. 

THE CHRIST STORY. 

OLD BALLADS IN PROSE. 

All of the above are illustrated. 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
Boston and New York 


THE HOUSE WITH THE 
SILVEE DOOE 










































































































■ 




















































































































































^wf 


THE CHILDREN TOLD THE MOON LADY 



THE HOUSE WITH THE 
SILVER DOOR 


BY 

EVA MARCH TAPPAN 


WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 



BOSTON AND NEW YORK 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 


@,\>t pre^ Camtmbce 

1913 


COPYRIGHT, I913, BY EVA MARCH TAPPAN 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 


Published September iqis 





©CI.A351687 


CONTENTS 


I. The House with the Silver 

Door 1 

II. King Hansel the First . . 67 

III. The Star Princess .... 129 



ILLUSTRATIONS 


The Children told the Moon Lady . . 30 
SlLYERBOY CALLED, “Who’S THERE?” . . 52 
A Great Coarse Hand pulled him in . .94 

“She is fairer than any of my Maidens” 158 


From drawings by Emily Hall Chamberlain . 








































































I 












# 







* 





THE HOUSE WITH THE 
SILVER DOOR 



THE HOUSE WITH THE 
SILVER DOOR 

O NCE upon a time a man and his wife 
lived in a cottage in the forest, so far 
away that no one could think how far it 
was even if he tried for a month. They had 
two children, a boy and a girl. There was 
only one thing more that they wanted, and 
that was a silver door to the cottage. 

“How I should like to have a silver 
door,” said the goodman, “sol could see 
the sun shine upon it at sunset when I 
came in from my work ! ” 

“How I should like to have a silver 
door,” said the good wife. “I should draw 
in the latchstring at night, and go to sleep 
thinking, ‘My door is made of silver, and 
how it will shine when the sun strikes it 
in the morning.’” 


3 


The House with the Silver Door 

The children had heard this every day 
since they could remember, and when they 
had grown older, they determined to go 
away and see if they could not find a silver 
door for their father and mother. 

Very early one morning, long before their 
parents were awake, Silverboy and Silver- 
girl, for those were their names, took hold 
of each other’s hand and went softly out 
of the cottage and far away. They climbed 
over fallen trees, they waded through brooks 
and mossy pools, they were caught in the 
briers, and they scrambled down break- 
neck cliffs. After a long time they came 
to the edge of the forest, but nowhere 
had they seen what they were looking 
for. 

“What shall we do?” cried Silvergirl, 
sobbing. “I’m afraid we shall never find 
a silver door.” 

Silverboy might have cried, too, if he 
4 


The House with the Silver Door 

had been alone, but now he plucked up his 
courage and answered bravely : — 

“ Oh, we ’ll find it yet.” 

“But we don’t even know where to look 
for it.” 

“Do you see that great oak tree, the 
one with so many knots ? I saw a squirrel 
run into a hole in the trunk just now. 
Maybe he ’s the Wizard Squirrel himself, 
and I mean to ask him if he will tell us 
where to go.” 

“Oh, don’t,” pleaded Silvergirl. “I am 
afraid he might hurt you.” 

“Some wizards are bad,” declared Sil- 
verboy as wisely as if he had gone fishing 
with wizards every day of his life, “but 
some are good, and I ’m almost sure that 
this is a good one.” Then he went under 
the tree and called softly: — 

“ Squirrel, squirrel, are you the Wizard 
Squirrel?” 


5 


The House with the Silver Door 

“Wizard yourself!” scolded the squir- 
rel, making up a comical face at him. “I 
wish you ’d keep quiet; I want to eat my 
supper.” 

“But won’t you please tell us where to 
look for a silver door?” begged Silver- 
boy. 

“In the place where they keep them, of 
course,” retorted the Wizard Squirrel, for 
it was really he himself. 

“Won’t you please tell us where that 
is? ” Silverboy persisted. 

“Perhaps it is in the moon,” declared 
the Wizard Squirrel meditatively. “It 
looks as if there was a good deal of silver 
up there. Why don’t you ask the Moon 
King? ” he added, dropping a bit of nut- 
shell directly upon Silverboy’s nose. “Now, 
run away; you ask too many questions. 
Squirrels never ask questions at supper- 
time.” 


6 


The House with the Silver Door 

“But we can’t get to the moon,” said 
Silverboy sadly. 

“No more can you get to me,” retorted 
the Wizard Squirrel, “but you won’t stop 
talking to me.” And with a whisk of his 
bushy tail he slipped out of sight into his 
hole. 

“He means that we shall call to the 
moon,” said Silvergirl. 

They went out from the forest to an open 
field to watch for the moon, and soon it 
shone down clear and bright, and they 
cried : — 

“ 0 moon, moon, won’t you please help 
us and tell us where to find a silver door ? ” 

But the moon sailed on among the little 
clouds and answered never a word. Right 
behind the children, however, they heard 
a funny little chattering. It was the Wizard 
Squirrel, and he called : — 

“You are real moon calves ! I never told 


7 


The House with the Silver Door 

you to call out in that fashion. I ’ve thought 
of something. What will you do for me if 
I tell you which way to go to find a silver 
door?” 

“ I ’ll give you a great idle of nuts,” said 
Silverboy. 

“Ho, nuts, indeed!” declared the Wiz- 
ard Squirrel. “I can get nuts myself, and 
I can go to the very tops of trees that you 
wouldn’t think of climbing.” 

“I ’ll do anything you say,” promised 
Silverboy eagerly. 

“ There ’s just one thing that you can 
do for me,” said the Wizard Squirrel. “ I 
don’t want the All- Alone Axe to cut down 
the Ancient Oak, and if you will go to the 
mountain over there and get him to pro- 
mise to let it alone, you will be started on 
the right way to find the silver door. If he 
won’t do it, you may as well go home, for 
you ’ll never find your door if you hunt 
8 


The House with the Silver Door 
till the skies fall. I can’t stop to talk with 
moon calves any longer,” and in a flash he 
was gone. 

“ Shall we do it? ” asked Silvergirl; and 
her brother replied stoutly, “Yes, come on, 
and let us climb the mountain.” 

So on they went, across the meadow and 
over the swamp and through the thicket 
and up the side of the mountain. When 
they were halfway to the top, they heard 
the sound of chopping. Then they heard 
the fall of a tree. 

“That must be the All- Alone Axe,” said 
Silverboy. “It sounds as if it was over 
there, just behind the cliff. Come, and we 
will find the woodchopper and ask him not 
to cut down the Ancient Oak.” 

They hurried around the cliff, but no 
woodchopper was there. Nothing at all was 
to be seen but a great axe chopping away 
all by its lone self. 


9 


The House with the Silver Door 

“Please, Mr. All- Alone Axe,” said Sil- 
verboy, rather timidly, for he had never 
before seen an axe chopping away alone. 
“Please, Mr. All- Alone Axe, will you tell 
us where the woodchopper is? ” 

“Can’t you see?” demanded the All- 
Alone Axe sharply. “I’m chopping, and 
I ’m chopping wood. What more wood- 
chopper do you want?” And he cut away 
faster than ever. 

The trees began to fall on the right and 
on the left, and Silvergirl was badly fright- 
ened. “Oh, if we only could get away!” 
she thought; but she called up all her 
courage and asked very politely : — 

“ Is there anything we can do for you, 
Mr. All- Alone Axe ? ” 

“ There ’s a girl who knows an axe from 
a hatchet ! ” cried the All-Alone Axe; and 
he was so pleased that he actually stopped 
cutting for at least two minutes. “ Yes,” 
10 


The House with the Silver Door 

he added ; “ over on that mountain the 
Gentle Giant lives, and after I have cut 
down some trees, he often comes and drags 
them away. If you ’ll make him promise 
to let my trees alone, I ’ll do whatever you 
want.” 

“Will you let the Ancient Oak stand ? ” 
asked Silvergirl. 

“ I will,” replied the All- Alone Axe ; so 
the children said good-bye and started 
for the mountain where the Gentle Giant 
lived. 

It was a long, long way. They had to make 
a little raft before they could cross the river. 
They had to climb steep cliffs, to scramble 
down into deep gullies, and to creep over 
slippery rocks. At last they were well up 
the side of the Gentle Giant’s mountain ; 
and now they began to hear a loud rus- 
tling as if all the winds of the heavens 
were blowing all the branches of all the 
11 


The House with the Silver Door 
trees. They caught hold of each other’s 
hand and stood listening. Pretty soon they 
heard, “Ho-ho! Ho-ho!” It sounded like 
some one taking a deep breath, but it was 
almost if not quite as loud as thunder. Sil- 
verboy and Silvergirl were so frightened 
that they would surely have run off down 
the mountain had not the Gentle Giant 
just then caught sight of them and roared 
out : — 

“ Ho, there ! Stop, I say. I ’m lonesome, 
I want to see you. Come here and talk to 
me.” 

It was not of the least use to try to run 
away, for he had stretched out two hands 
as big as pine trees, and in a moment he 
had Silverboy in his right hand and Silver- 
girl in his left hand and was holding them 
up before his eyes to get a better view of 
them. 

“ Who are you ? ” he roared as softly as 
12 


The House with the Silver Door 

he could, for he was not one of the hateful 
giants, but one of the good-natured sort. 
“Where are you going? ” 

“We’re going to find a silver door for 
the cottage,” shouted Silverboyas loud as 
ever he could. 

‘ 1 Eh? ’ ’ roared the Gentle Giant. ‘ ‘ What ’s 
that? Talk a little louder, can’t you?” 
And he held the children up to his ear. 

Then Silvergirl screamed with all her 
might : — 

“We ’re going to find a silver door for 
the cottage.” 

“ That ’s all right,” said the Gentle Giant, 
with a laugh that shook the trees like a 
tempest. “I wonder if she’d like a silver 
door,” he added, trying to look through the 
trees to another mountain even higher than 
his. “When you find your silver door, you 
might come up here and tell me about it,” 
he said with a chuckle. “ If you are going 
13 


The House with the Silver Door 

up on that mountain, I ’ll carry you over 
the swamp and halfway up the hill. I don’t 
dare to go any farther.” 

“Why, how could any one hurt you?" 
cried Silverboy, taking hold of the Gentle 
Giant’s ear with both hands and shouting 
into it. 

The Gentle Giant seemed so good-natured 
that the children did not feel one bit afraid ; 
but now something happened that did 
frighten them, for the giant began to cry, 
and he cried such floods of tears that they 
had to cling to his fingers with all their 
might to keep from being washed off and 
down the side of the mountain. 

“I’m sorry as I can be,” said Silvergirl. 
“ Don’t cry, Mr. Gentle Giant.” And Silver- 
boy called, “We’ll help you, and there 
shan’t anybody hurt you.” 

The Gentle Giant laughed till he was 
almost crying again, and he shook so that 
14 


The House with the Silver Door 

the children had to hold on harder than 
ever. Then he said : — 

“ Come up on the mountain and see my 
house and eat dinner with me, will you ? 
I ’m lonesome up there, and it is n’t often 
that I get any children to come and play 
with me.” 

Of course they said yes, and he carried 
them carefully up the mountain to the big- 
gest house that they ever saw. It was built 
of logs, bigger than any trees that grew in 
their own forest. The door was so high that 
the clouds could have floated in as easy as 
anything. In one corner was the bed. To 
make it, the giant had driven into the floor 
a stake, or rather the trunk of a great pine 
tree. He had laid long rails from this stake 
to the two walls, shutting in the corner. On 
top of the rails were stout boughs, and on 
top of the boughs were whole barnfuls of 
soft spruce and fir and hemlock branches, 
15 


The House with the Silver Door 
until there was as comfortable a bed as was 
ever seen. For a table he had driven another 
tree trunk into the middle of the floor. Then 
he had split in two the biggest tree on the 
mountain and had fastened it to the top 
of the trunk, the flat side up. At one end 
of the room was the chimney, and that was 
large enough to roast at least ten oxen, 
eleven deer, and fifteen bears, with plenty 
of room between them for pigs and par- 
tridges. 

“I don’t feel hungry to-day,” said the 
Gentle Giant, “ so I put on only five oxen, 
four deer, and three bears to roast, with 
perhaps half a dozen little pigs; but now 
I have company, I ’ll hang up a few par- 
tridges, too, just for a relish.” 

He hung a score or two of partridges in 
front of the fire, and when they were done, 
he called the children to sit down and eat 
with him, though at first it was rather hard 
16 


The House with the Silver Door 
to see how they could do it. He put them 
on two of his wooden stools, but, stretch 
their necks as they might, they could not 
see over the edge of the table. 

“We’ll soon fix that,” declared the 
Gentle Giant. 

He went to the end of the room, not 
more than a quarter of a mile away, and 
brought back his tallest churn. He set it 
on the stool bottomside up, and put Silver- 
girl on top of it. 

“I have n’t any other churn that is tall 
enough for you,” said the giant, “but I ’ll 
just bring in a pebble and put a cushion 
on it.” 

So out of the door he went and soon 
came back with a stone in his hand big 
enough for a doorstep. He set that up 
on the stool and laid a cushion on top 
of it, and then they were ready for din- 
ner. 


17 


The House with the Silver Door 

“Which will you have first,” he asked, 
“an ox or a bear?” 

“Could I have a partridge?” asked Sil- 
vergirl. 

“Just as many of them as you want,” 
replied the giant. “In my country we al- 
ways ate the oxen and bears first; but you 
shall do as you like.” 

So he gave each of the children some 
partridges, and then he himself began on 
the oxen. One by one they disappeared, 
and the pile of bones beside his plate grew 
higher and higher, till at last the children 
could not see his face at all. Through the 
bones, however, his great voice came rum- 
bling as he called: “Aren’t you ready for 
your oxen yet, or will you have a deer or 
two and a few little pigs? ” 

He did not wait for an answer, but piled 
up oxen and bears and deer and pigs on 
the table before them. 

18 


The House with the Silver Door 

“Truly, Mr. Gentle Giant,” declared Sil- 
verboy, “we can’t eat any more. Could n’t 
you eat these?” 

“Perhaps,” replied the giant, “though I 
don’t seem to have so much appetite as 
usual. I ’ll take just a bite or two more 
and then we ’ll all sit down under the trees 
and you can tell me where you are going 
and what you know about silver doors. I 
know a lady who — I mean I might want 
to find one myself some day.” 

The Gentle Giant had already eaten the 
five oxen and the four deer, and now he 
ate the three bears and the little pigs. 
“Just one mouthful more to leave a good 
taste,” he said, and in two minutes the 
rest of the partridges were gone. 

“Now come out of doors,” he called, and 
led the way to the great door, but the chil- 
dren did not follow him. “ What ’s the mat- 
ter?” he asked. 


19 


The House with the Silver Door 

“We can’t get down,” they replied. 

The Gentle Giant laughed until the stars 
would have rattled in the sky if it had 
been night. “I don’t have company of 
your size very often,” he said, “and I for- 
get my manners.” Then he took Silvergirl 
in one great hand and Silverboy in the 
other and carried them out under the trees. 
“ I ’ll lie down on the moss,” he said, “and 
you can talk right into my ear. Tell me 
who you are and where you are going.” 

So the Gentle Giant stretched himself 
out on the ground and Silverboy called into 
his ear: — 

“We live in a cottage in our own forest, 
far as far away from here. Our father and 
our mother want a silver door, and we are 
going to find one for them.” 

“How do you know where to look?” 
asked the Gentle Giant, rather drowsily, 
for he was getting sleepy. 

20 


The House with the Silver Door 

“We asked the Wizard Squirrel, and he 
told us to go to the All-Alone Axe. The 
All- Alone Axe told us to come here. We 
thought at first that the Wizard Squirrel 
meant us to call out to the Moon King, 
but he did n’t.” 

“Eh ! ” shouted the Gentle Giant, start- 
ing up. “What ’s that ? ” 

“We thought he meant that we should 
call out to the Moon King, but he didn’t,” 
repeated Silverboy. 

“Are you sure as sure that he didn’t 
say ‘ the Moon Lady ’ ? ” demanded the 
Gentle Giant eagerly. 

“ No, he did n’t,” Silverboy answered, 
“but he said we must get the All- Alone 
Axe to promise not to cut down the 
Ancient Oak.” 

“Did he promise?” the Gentle Giant 
asked. 

“ He said he would not touch the 
21 


The House with the Silver Door 

Ancient Oak if we could get you to promise 
not to drag away his trees after he has cut 
them down.” 

“But I have to,” declared the Gentle 
Giant earnestly. “You see, I must build 
a big house to bring her to if she should 
ever marry me.” 

“ It seems to me that your house is pretty 
big now,” said Silvergirl. 

But the Gentle Giant shook his great 
head. 

“No,” he said. “I wanted it as big as 
all outdoors, but it isn’t more than half 
as big.” 

“ When is she coming? ” asked Silverboy. 

“ I don’t know,” replied the Gentle 
Giant sadly. “ When I asked her to marry 
me, she only laughed ; but maybe she ’ll 
change her mind some day, and I should 
be so ashamed if I hadn’t a house big 
enough for her.” 


22 


The House with the Silver Door 

And the Gentle Giant dropped a tear as 
big as a waterpail. It fell upon Silvergirl 
and wet her from head to foot, but the 
Gentle Giant was so busy thinking that he 
did not notice the mischief he had done. 

“I hope she’ll come,” declared Silver- 
boy wai’mly. 

“So do I,” said Silvergirl. 

The Gentle Giant sat for a long while 
gazing on a mountain that could just be 
seen through the trees. He seemed to be 
hard at work thinking. At last he turned 
to Silvergirl and asked : — 

“ So you really think this house is big 
enough, do you ? ” 

“Indeed I do,” declared Silvergirl. 

“I suppose you ought to know what a 
lady would like better than a great clumsy 
fellow like me,” the Gentle Giant mused. 
Then he said suddenly, “ I’ll tell you what 
I ’ll do. If you will get the Moon Lady to 
23 


The House with the Silver Door 

say site ’ll marry me, I ’ll not drag away any 
more trees from the All- Alone Axe, and I ’ll 
carry you both halfway up her mountain 
besides.” 

“We’ll try our very best,” said the chil- 
dren. 

Then the Gentle Giant set Silverboy on 
his right shoulder and Silvergirl on his 
left, and away they went to the Moon 
Lady’s mountain. When you ride on the 
shoulder of a giant who can take a quarter 
of a mile at a stride, even a long journey 
is soon done, and before they had any idea 
that they were halfway up the mountain, 
the Gentle Giant whispered as softly as he 
could : — 

“ Here you are, little folk. Just go up 
the mountain, and you ’ll be at her house 
in no time.” 

“ Come with us,” the children pleaded, 
for it seemed very lonesome to be left 
24 


The House with the Silver Door 

in the forest without the good-natured 
giant. 

But he shook his head and whispered so 
gently that it was not much louder than a 
waterfall : — 

“I don’t dare. She might look right at 
me and laugh and ask what I had come 
for, and then I should feel so ashamed. 
You go on, and if she only says she will 
marry me, tie a burning torch to the pine 
tree at the top of the mountain, and I ’ll 
come and get you all and carry you wher- 
ever you wish.” And before the children 
could say another word, they heard his steps 
crashing down through the trees. 

They went on and on toward the top of 
the mountain, and just as the sun was 
setting, they began to see something shin- 
ing through the trees. It looked like glass 
and cream candy and rainbows, like brooks 
in the sunshine and quiet pools in the 
25 


The House with the Silver Door 

moonlight. It flashed and glowed and 
gleamed and sparkled. When they came 
nearer, they saw that it was a splendid 
palace, and looking out of one of the win- 
dows was the most beautiful lady that they 
had ever seen. She was laughing more 
musically than they had ever heard any 
one laugh before. The sound was like that 
made by little brooks rippling over stones, 
or little waves running up on the shore. 
When she caught sight of the children, she 
called : — 

“ Come in, you little dears. I ’ll meet you 
at the door.” 

She disappeared from the window, but 
they could hear her laughing happily as she 
tripped though the halls. In a minute she 
stood in the doorway, holding out her hands 
to them. She wore a silken gown almost as 
yellow as the sunshine. Her hair, too, was 
yellow and hung down to the ground in 
26 


The House with the Silver Door 

long ripples that gleamed and shimmered 
as the sunbeams touched them. On her 
head was a golden crescent, and above it 
was just one golden star. The children 
stood gazing at her, for in all their lives they 
had never seen any one half so lovely. 

“Well, what is it?” she called lightly. 
“Am I so ugly? You stand there gazing at 
me as if I were a monster.” 

“ I did not know anybody could be so 
beautiful,” cried Silverboy honestly. Silver- 
girl slipped up beside her, and the Moon 
Lady took her little brown hand in her own 
and began to laugh from pure pleasure and 
merriment. 

“Come in,” she cried, “come in. I’ve 
been waiting for you. I knew you were 
coming. It ’s hard to keep secrets from the 
Moon Lady. Secrets are such nice things 
to laugh at, don’t you think so?” she 
called to Silverboy; and in a minute she 
27 


The House with the Silver Door 
had his hand, too, and was leading both the 
children into the palace and up the broad 
marble stairs. “Now,” she said, “I have 
one room full of candy, and another full of 
toys, and another full of brooks to sail boats 
in, and another full of ponies for children 
to ride, and another full of pretty gardens 
to play in, and — ” 

“But how can there be gardens and 
brooks in a room in a house ? ” asked Sil- 
vergirl, gazing at her with great wondering 
eyes. 

The Moon Lady looked amused. “Be- 
cause this is a Wonder Palace,” she said at 
last. “Don’t you know that in a Wonder 
Palace one can have whatever she likes? 
You like gardens to play in, I am sure of 
that, and so there are gardens in one of my 
rooms. You like ponies, and so there are 
ponies here. I don’t see anything strange 
about it,” and she laughed so merrily that 
28 


The House with the Silver Door 

the children could not help laughing with 
her. They went to the candy room and the 
toy room and the brook room and the pony 
room and the others. These were all so 
delightful that when the Moon Lady asked 
which they liked best, they could not 
choose. 

“That is no matter,” she declared, “for 
you must stay here with me forever and 
always, and there will be new rooms for you 
every day, and each one will be full of finer 
things than you ever saw before.” 

“ Oh ! ” cried the children, “ but we must 
not. We must go on and find a silver door 
for the father and the mother.” 

“What’s that about a silver door?” 
asked the Moon Lady. “ A wizard told me 
something about a silver door once, but I 
don’t know what he meant. He said : — 

When the silver door flies open, 

Then the iron door shuts tight. 

29 


The House with the Silver Door 

Silver cheats you in the moonbeams, 

Iron is honest in the light.” 

“Was the wizard a squirrel, dear Moon 
Lady?” the children asked. 

“I forget,” she replied, “it was so long 
ago; but it was a good thing to laugh at,” 
and again she laughed so lightly and mu- 
sically that the children fancied they heard 
a summer shower falling upon the leaves. 
“ Have you seen a wizard, too ? ” she asked ; 
“and has he told you about a silver door? 
Come into the room that is full of all the 
music of all the world and tell me about 
it.” 

So they went into the room, and while 
all the music of all the world was playing 
softly around them, the children told the 
Moon Lady about their little home in the 
far-away forest. They told her how much 
the father and the mother wanted a silver 
door, and how they had come out into the 
30 


The House with the Silver Door 
world to try to find one. They told her 
about the Wizard Squirrel who would help 
them if the All- Alone Axe would agree to 
spare the Ancient Oak ; about the All-Alone 
Axe who would spare the Ancient Oak if the 
Gentle Giant would stop dragging away his 
trees; and then about the Gentle Giant 
who would stop dragging away the trees 
if only — 

“What next?” the Moon Lady inter- 
rupted ; “ the Gentle Giant would stop drag- 
ging away the trees if what?” 

“If you would only marry him,” said 
Silverboy boldly. “Won’t you please marry 
him, for we do want to find a silver door 
so very, very much?” 

“What kind of giant is he?” the Moon 
Lady asked, trying to look very serious. 

“He ’s the best giant in all the world, I 
just know he is,” declared Silverboy; and 
Silvergirl added, “He was so good to us. 

31 


The House with the Silver Door 

I ’m sure you would love him. He said you 
told him you would n’t marry him, but you 
will, won’t you?” 

“Certainly,” replied the Moon Lady, “ I ’d 
just as soon as not. I meant to all the time, 
but I wanted to see whether he would come 
back and ask me again.” 

“Then I ’ll go to the very top of the 
mountain and tie a lighted torch to the 
topmost bough of the tall pine tree, so he 
will know that you are willing to marry 
him,” cried Silverboy, and in a moment 
he would have been away had not the 
Moon Lady stopped him. 

“If the Gentle Giant wants me very 
much, he will come and get me,” she 
said. 

“But he’s afraid,” cried Silvergirl; “he 
said he was.” 

“Then he can’t have me,” declared the 
Moon Lady. 


32 


The House with the Silver Door 

“Then we can’t get the silver door,” 
said Silverboy soberly. 

“Why not?” asked the Moon Lady 
lightly. “Wandering about the world to 
find silver doors is not the thing for a girl, 
of course, but you can do it if you like. 
Silvergirl must stay here with me, but you 
may go out and search. There ’s nothing 
to hinder your going straight up to the 
moon and choosing one for yourself. I ’ve 
been there many a time. My brother is the 
King of the Moon.” 

“But how can I get there?” cried Sil- 
verboy. “Can I go to the top of a high, 
high mountain and leap upon the moon 
when it passes by?” 

“If that isn’t just like a boy!” cried 
the Moon Lady, with another of her merry 
laughs. “Silvergirl wouldn’t try to get 
there in any such foolish way, I know. 
Would you, Silvergirl?” 

33 


The House with the Silver Door 

“I believe I should try to go to the top 
of the tallest tree in the world,” replied 
Silvergirl, “and then, when the moonbeams 
touched it, I would beg them to carry me 
home with them.” 

“That’s much more sensible,” said the 
Moon Lady gravely; and she added with 
a little twinkle in her bright eyes, “ If 
there was n’t any other way, yours would 
be the best, but there ’s one way that is 
better.” 

“What is it?” cried the children to- 
gether. 

“You must go to the Slippery Spider 
and ask him for web enough to build a 
ladder,” she replied ; “that is, you may go, 
Silverboy ; and when you come back, we ’ll 
talk about All- Alone Axes and Wizard 
Squirrels, and maybe about Gentle Giants. 
There’s one thing you must remember; 
so long as you are on the face of the earth 
34 


The House with the Silver Door 
you are safe, but if you go into the earth 
you will never come here again. Will you 
promise not to go into the earth?” 

Silverboy promised. Then he said good- 
bye and set out in search of the Slippery 
Spider. He went down the mountain and 
over the fields, asking every bird and every 
bee that he met if they knew where to find 
the Slippery Spider, but not one of them 
could tell him. At length he asked a little 
fly that was sitting on a green leaf in the 
sunshine. 

“Yes, I know,” said the fly, “but it 
makes me flutter to think of him.” 

“How do you find his home?” asked 
Silverboy. 

“You have to go into the Yalley of Twi- 
light, past nine gray rocks and three dead 
trees. By and by, you come to a great mass 
of briers, and under the briers is where the 
Slippery Spider lives ; but don’t go there. 

35 


The House with the Silver Door 
He is — ” But Silverboy was already on 
bis way to tbe Yalley of Twilight. He went 
past the nine gray rocks and the three dead 
trees and came to the great mass of briers ; 
but no Slippery Spider was to be seen. 

“ Slippery Spider, 0 Slippery Spider,” 
he called, “won’t you please give me a 
little web to make a ladder to go to the 
moon? ” 

He heard a rustling in the leaves, and 
in a moment there stood beside him the 
queerest, most dried-up little old man that 
he had ever seen. The little old man made 
a bow and in a thin, squeaky voice he 
replied : — 

“ Certainly, my good sir. I shall be glad 
to give you web enough to go to the moon 
or seven times as far, if you wish. Will you 
kindly walk into my underground house. 
It is cool and comfortable there, and we will 
talk this matter over together.” 

36 


The House with the Silver Door 
Silverboy was about to follow the Slip- 
pery Spider when he remembered what the 
Moon Lady said, that he must not go into 
the earth, and he asked : — 

“Couldn’t we sit down here and talk 
about it?” He fancied that the Slippery 
Spider’s eyes flashed red for a moment, but 
the little old man said quietly : — 

“I see. Some one has been telling you 
stories about my home. If you prefer, we 
will sit down under these beautiful brier 
bushes. Here is my favorite lane, between 
the Tumbling Rock and the Withering 
Grass. Will you come? ” 

“I ’m too big. I can’t get in there,” re- 
plied Silverboy. 

“ Oh, we can manage all that,” said the 
Slippery Spider, in an offhand way. “Just 
step in and there will be no trouble.” 

Silverboy thought he heard the buzzing 
of a fly, but he said to himself, “ Surely, 
37 


The House with the Silver Door 
there ’s no harm in just stepping toward 
the briers,” and he said to the Slippery 
Spider : — 

“ Certainly I will if you wish.” 

He took one step into the narrow pas- 
sageway ; and he was surprised enough to 
find that he could walk in it without the 
least difficulty. 1 ‘ I wonder how he has done 
that, ’ ’ he thought. 1 ‘ Somehow he has made 
the grass as tall as I am, and the brier 
bushes are as big as any tree in the forest. 
I wonder what strange thing that is away up 
above my head. It looks like a mushroom, 
but it is as high as the roof of a house.” 
Suddenly it burst upon him that this really 
was a mushroom and that, instead of mak- 
ing the passage big, the Slippery Spider had 
made him so little that when the dreadful 
creature caught hold of him and dragged 
him down into a cavern, he could not do 
anything to save himself. 

38 


The House with the Silver Door 

The cavern was dark as dark, but after 
his eyes were a little used to the darkness, 
he could see that a strong spider-web had 
been drawn across the opening. He felt 
in his tiny pocket for his tiny knife and 
began to cut away at the stout cords of 
the web ; but he could not make even the 
smallest break. 

“ That ’s right,” called the thin, squeaky 
voice, “ you are a good jailer ; I shan’t have 
to watch you.” 

Silverboy looked up, and there was the 
Slippery Spider peering through the web, 
twice as tall as his prisoner. It did not 
seem quite so dark as at first, and Silver- 
boy could see what an ugly grin was on 
his face. 

“I suppose you don’t know,” said the 
Slippery Spider, with a hateful chuckle, 
“that this is a magic web, and that every 
time you cut a thread, you make it exactly 
39 


The House with the Silver Door 
seven times as strong as it was before. Oh, 
you ’re a good jailer, you are ! ” and again 
he laughed, the most sneering, malicious 
laugh that can be imagined. At last he 
went away, leaving Silverboy in the dark- 
ness. He came back once more for a mo- 
ment and called : — 

“ I say, you ’re not fat enough yet. When 
you get fatter, I shall eat you. You won’t 
have long to wait.” 

Poor Silverboy, there he sat and won- 
dered if there was any way to escape. He 
thought of his father and mother and sister. 
“I shall never, never see them again,” he 
sobbed ; and he threw himself on the cold 
floor of the cave and cried and cried. 

Suddenly he felt a little hand wiping 
away his tears with the softest and dain- 
tiest of handkerchiefs. The hand was so 
smooth and gentle that at first he pre- 
tended not to know that it was there for 
40 


The House with the Silver Door 

fear it would go away. Then a sweet little 
voice said softly : — 

“Boy, poor boy, don’t cry.” 

“ Who are you ? ” asked Silverboy. “How 
did you come here? Did the Slippery Spider 
bring you, too? ” 

“I was walking alone,” said the sweet 
voice, “and I saw the lane. It looked pretty, 
for the briers were in bloom, and I started 
to come into it ; but before I knew it, I was 
in this dreadful den.” 

“ And did he make you small as he made 
me?” asked Silverboy. 

“ Oh, no, I am just as tall as ever.” 

“Let’s stand up back to back,” said 
Silverboy, “and I will put my hand on my 
head and then on yours, for I don’t see 
how any one could get in here and not be 
made little.” So they stood up back to 
back, and Silverboy put his hand on his 
own head and then on hers, and he found, 
41 


The House with the Silver Door 

as he had expected, that she was no taller 
than he. Indeed, she was not quite so tall. 

“But what is this on your head?” he 
asked. “It feels pointed and queer. What 
is it?” 

“ That ’s my pearl coronet,” the little girl 
replied. “I wear it because my father is 
a king. They call me the Pearl Princess. 
What is your name? ” 

“I am Silverboy. I wish it was light so 
I could see your face.” 

“So do I,” said the Pearl Princess; “I 
mean, so I could see yours. Don’t you 
suppose we can ever, ever get out of this 
horrible place? ” 

“We ’ll find a way somehow,” declared 
Silverboy ; for now that he was not alone, he 
felt much more courageous and hopeful. He 
pulled and tugged at the bars with all his 
might and main ; but, try his best, he could 
not stir them one bit. Indeed, they only grew 
42 


The House with the Silver Door 
stronger and firmer whenever he touched 
them ; and even after a long, long time had 
passed away, Silverboy and the Pearl Prin- 
cess were still prisoners in the den of the 
Slippery Spider. 

All this while Silvergirl was living in 
the Wonder Palace with the Moon Lady. 
As time passed, she was no more a child, 
but a tall young girl who grew prettier 
every day until she had become the fairest 
little maiden in all the land. She would 
have been the happiest if her brother had 
only come back ; but the brother did not 
come, and she began to grow sad and pale. 
The Moon Lady sent her servants to scour 
the country roundabout. They peered into 
the valleys, they looked through and 
through every little corner of the forest; 
they asked all the brook fairies and all the 
flower fairies and all the grass fairies, but 
none of them had seen anything of Silver- 
43 


The House with the Silver Door 

boy. Every night when they came in from 
their search, Silvergirl asked, “ Have you 
found my brother? ” When they answered, 
“No, but perhaps we shall find him to- 
morrow,” she looked sadder than ever. 

The Moon Lady was very much troubled. 

“ Oh, I wish the Moon King would come ! ’ ’ 
she often said. “He would know what to 
do to help us.” 

One night, just as it was growing dark, 
the Moon Lady and Silvergirl saw a bright 
light shining in the east. It grew larger and 
brighter and came nearer every minute. 
The palace glowed and gleamed with the 
reflection as if there were blazing torches 
in every corner of it. 

“ That 's my brother,” cried the Moon 
Lady joyfully. “He is the Moon King, 
and he will know how to help us find Sil- 
verboy.” 

By and by the Moon King came driving 
44 


The House with the Silver Door 

straight up the side of the mountain with his 
six shining white horses. The Moon Lady 
threw her arms about his neck and kissed 
him. Then she made a great feast for him. 
On the table were the most delicious things 
of all the countries. The air was full of all 
the music of all the world, and it was a 
very happy time. 

But after a little while the Moon King 
did not even look at the dainties or listen 
to the music. He looked at pretty Silver- 
girl and he listened to nothing but her 
voice. 

“ I saw your face in a dream last night,” 
he said, “and I want you for my Moon 
Queen. Will you marry me? ” 

“ But my brother has not come back,” 
she answered, “and I haven’t yet found 
the silver door for my father and mother.” 

“ I ’ll give you silver doors for all the 
cottages in the forest,” cried the Moon 
45 


The House with the Silver Door 

King, “and I ’ll find your brother if he is 
aboveground.” 

“But the Moon Lady’s servants have 
looked everywhere aboveground,” said Sil- 
vergirl sadly, “and they could not find 
him.” 

“Then I ’ll look underground,” declared 
the Moon King. “I know all the gnomes 
and dwarfs and pixies and underworld 
fairies and crickets and field mice ; and 
there is n’t one of them that would n’t be 
gladder than glad to do me a favor. Will 
you marry me when I have found Silver- 
boy?” 

Even the little bii’d at the window could 
not hear her answer; but it seemed to 
please the Moon King, for he cried joyfully 
to his sister, “Take good care of my bride, 
and I ’ll be here with Silverboy in the 
twinkling of a star.” And before she could 
say good-bye, his white horses with their 
46 


The House with the Silver Door 

golden harness were tearing down the 
mountain as if they were trying to catch 
up with the swiftest river that ever flowed. 

Finding Silverboy was not quite so easy 
as the Moon King had expected, for no one 
but the Slippery Spider knew that he had 
become so tiny. The gnomes and the dwarfs 
and the pixies and the underworld fairies 
and all the rest looked in vain for a tall 
boy in search of a silver door. The crickets 
and the field mice looked, but Silverboy 
was nowhere to be found. Silvergirl grew 
paler and paler, and the Moon Lady began 
to feel anxious, not only lest some wild 
beast or some fierce bird of prey should 
have devoured Silverboy, but also lest Sil- 
vergirl should grieve herself to death for 
the loss of her brother. 

All the little folk of the forest and field, 
those that wore feathers or furs or hair or 
just plain skin, were talking about the lost 
47 


The House with the Silver Door 
Silverboy, and at last the news came to 
the Thoughtful Snail. No one had dreamed 
of his joining in the search because he was 
so slow and had to carry his house about 
with him; but the Thoughtful Snail went 
to his neighbor, the Friendly Glowworm, 
and said: — 

“ I ’ve been thinking.” 

“Well?” said the Friendly Glowworm. 

“I ’ve been thinking.” 

“Well?” 

“I’ve been thinking,” declared the 
Thoughtful Snail for the third time, and 
then he told what he thought. “ The Moon 
King has been good to me,” he said slowly, 
“and I’ve been thinking that I should 
like to find the brother of his bride.” 

“Is that all?” exclaimed the Friendly 
Glowworm. “We’d everyone of us like 
to find him.” 

“But I’ve been thinking,” said the 
48 


The House with the Silver Door 
Thoughtful Snail again, and then he 
stopped to think a little more. The 
Friendly Glowworm waited patiently, and 
at last the Thoughtful Snail continued : — 

“If they can’t find a tall young man 
aboveground, then there isn’t any tall 
young man, and he must be short.” 

“Is that all?” exclaimed the Friendly 
Glowworm again. 

“No,” replied the Thoughtful Snail 
slowly. “ I ’ve thought of something else. 
All the real wizards are good friends of 
the Moon King, and there ’s only one of the 
creatures of the forest that can change the 
shape of a man.” 

“You mean the Slippery Spider ? ” 
asked his friend. 

“Yes,” replied the Thoughtful Snail; 
“ and I ’ve been thinking that if the Slip- 
pery Spider has changed his shape, he has 
made him smaller than himself, of course, 
49 


The House with the Silver Door 
or else he would have got away long before 
this.” 

“That’s so,” exclaimed the Friendly 
Glowworm, beginning to be interested. 

“I think he is smaller than a spider 
and that the Slippery Spider has fastened 
him into some den. You know that he can 
spin a magic web. It can be cut from the 
outside, but if any one tries to cut it from 
the inside, it grows stronger.” 

“ Then you think — ” 

“I’ve been thinking,” the Thoughtful 
Snail interrupted; “and I think that if 
you will go with me to carry the torch, 
we will go to the Slippery Spider’s hole 
to-night when he is away watching his 
nets, and perhaps we shall find Silver- 
boy.” 

That night the Thoughtful Snail and the 
Friendly Glowworm made their way to the 
lane of the Slippery Spider. The Friendly 
50 


The House with the Silver Door 

Glowworm crept under a dry leaf, and the 
Thoughtful Snail crouched in front of him 
so that the keen eyes of the Slippery Spider 
should see no ray of light. They watched 
him come out of his little lane and go away 
to look at his nets to see if some unwary 
traveler had not been caught in them; 
then they crept boldly in toward the den 
in the rock. The lane was so rough that 
more than once the Friendly Glowworm 
was tumbled from one side to the other, 
and so briery that the delicate horns of the 
Thoughtful Snail were scratched and torn ; 
but on they went until at last they were in 
front of the Slippery Spider’s den. Behold, 
there was the magic web stretched across 
the opening, and thicker and stronger than 
was ever the web of a spider before. 

The Friendly Glowworm was so excited 
that he quivered like a jelly ; and as for 
the Thoughtful Snail, his shell fairly rattled 
51 


The House with the Silver Door 
against the rock. It made such a noise that 
Silverboy called : — 

“Who ’s there? ” 

“Who’s there ?” cried the Thoughtful 
Snail gladly. “Are you Silverboy?” 

“ Yes, who are you ? ” 

For answer the Thoughtful Snail pushed 
his whole weight against the web, while 
the Friendly Glowworm caught hold of it 
and pulled and tugged with all his might. 
It fell on the ground, and Silverboy stepped 
out, pale as pale, and so small that his new 
friends could hardly see him ; but it was 
the real Silverboy himself. 

“Come quick,” said they, “before the 
Slippery Spider comes home.” 

“But I must go back for the Pearl 
Princess,” he declared. And although the 
Thoughtful Snail grumbled that he had 
not come to get any sort of princess, Silver- 
boy would not think of going without her. 

52 



SILVERBOY CALLED, “WHO’S THERE?” 




The House with the Silver Door 

He took her by the hand and led her out ; 
and when the Thoughtful Snail and the 
Friendly Glowworm saw how beautiful she 
was, they were glad, indeed, that she had 
not been left in the den to be devoured by 
the Slippery Spider. 

Down the little lane they all went, and 
at every step Silverboy and the Pearl Prin- 
cess grew larger, until when they were 
near the opening, they had to crouch and 
creep to get through it at all. Silverboy was 
so glad to find himself growing taller again 
that he did not care a straw for that, and 
he only laughed when the briers tore his 
hands and his face as he tried his best to 
keep their sharp points from the Pearl 
Princess. 

At last they were out of the lane, and 
the Thoughtful Snail cried : — 

“ Come, Silverboy, come. Don’t wait. The 
Slippery Spider may be here at any mo- 
53 


The House with the Silver Door 
ment ” ; for he had forgotten that Silverboy 
was large enough now to kill a hundred 
Slippery Spiders. 

But Silverboy stood gazing into the face 
of the Pearl Princess as if he was be- 
witched. 

“I never, never saw any one so beauti- 
ful,” he cried. “Dear Pearl Princess, I ’m 
a man now. Won’t you marry me?” 

“Yes,” replied the Pearl Princess, “I 
will; that is,” she added, “I will, if you 
will promise never to tell any one that once 
I was smaller than a spider.” 

Silverboy was now a tall young man. 
He led the Pearl Princess with one hand 
and carried the Thoughtful Snail and the 
Friendly Glowworm in the other, and they 
all went across fields and meadows and 
brooks, through forests and forests, and up 
the highest of all mountains to the Wonder 
Palace of the Moon Lady. 

54 


The House with the Silver Door 

Then there was rejoicing that was re- 
joicing from the very bottom of the palace 
to the top. The candy room threw its door 
open and begged to be eaten. The toys set 
to playing all of their own accord. The 
brooks ran faster than brooks ever ran be- 
fore and made prettier little dimples and 
ripples than any other brooks ever made. 
The ponies began to trot and prance and 
canter. The gardens became more beauti- 
ful than any one ever dreamed that even a 
garden could be. The Moon King and Sil- 
vergirl were married, and Silverboy and 
the Pearl Princess were married, and the 
Thoughtful Snail and the Friendly Glow- 
worm danced at the weddings. 

The air was full of all the music that 
ever was in all the world ; but from another 
mountain a sound came across the valley, 
and up, up, to the Wonder Palace, that was 
not music, but a most mournful sighing. 

55 


The House with the Silver Door 
When the Moon Lady heard it, her face 
grew pink, and she turned away and looked 
out of the window on the farther side of 
the palace. 

“Heigh, there!” cried the Moon King. 
“ Who is that sighing on the night of my 
wedding? Find him and give him what- 
ever he wants. Do you know him, sister ? 
What does he want? ” 

“I think it must be that he wants me,” 
replied the Moon Lady demurely. 

“That ’s — that ’s — why, that ’s — ” 
stammered the Moon King, and stood 
staring straight at his sister, too much 
surprised to say another word. 

“ It ’s the Gentle Giant over on the other 
mountain, ’ ’ Silverboy explained. “He said 
he would not drag away the trees of the 
All-Alone Axe if the Moon Lady would 
marry him.” 

“And so, my Moon Lady sister, you ’re 
56 


The House with the Silver Door 
going to marry the Gentle Giant to save 
the trees of the All- Alone Axe, are you? ” 
exclaimed the Moon King in amazement. 

“I think perhaps I will,” replied the 
Moon Lady, with one of her little rippling 
laughs. “ I don’t see any other way to keep 
him from sighing, and you don’t like to 
hear sighing.” 

“ Well, I never thought of such a thing ! ” 
declared the Moon King. 

And the Moon Lady retorted gayly, “I 
did, then. I ’ve thought of it as many times 
as three, and I ’m going to do it. He ’s the 
best giant in all the world, and I ’m going 
to marry him whenever he — ” 

Just then there was a commotion out- 
side, as if some one was crashing through 
the forest in a great hurry. There was a 
tramping and a stamping, and the face of 
the Gentle Giant appeared at the door, all 
ashine with pleasure. 

57 


The House with the Silver Door 

“I heard you, I heard you,” he cried. 
“ I heard you down the mountain, and I ’ve 
come to get you. We ’ll be married this 
very night, we will.” And the Gentle Giant 
clapped his hands and danced and sang 
and laughed out of pure happiness. 

So there was another wedding in the 
palace, and then they all set off to carry 
the Moon Lady to the home of the Gen- 
tle Giant. The Thoughtful Snail and the 
Friendly Glowworm went, too, for Silver- 
boy carried one, and the Pearl Princess 
carried the other. The Friendly Glowworm 
shone so bright that no one noticed a 
strange thing that was happening. Some- 
thing else had joined the wedding proces- 
sion. It was the Wonder Palace itself. Af- 
ter a little while it disappeared. It went 
up the mountain a shorter way, and when 
they came to the great door of the house 
of the Gentle Giant and looked in, behold, 
58 


The House with the Silver Door 

it was all aglow with light; and no won- 
der, for there were sunbeams and rainbows 
and dewdrop sparkles and waterfall gleams 
and fireplace sparks and Northern light 
glimmerings, all in one brilliant and glori- 
ous tangle. In the midst of it and round 
about it was all the music of all the world, 
for the whole Wonder Palace had slipped 
in through the farther door. 

“The Thoughtful Snail and I have 
brought our houses with us,” said the bride 
as quietly as if she always traveled with a 
palace for a companion. “But, truly,” she 
whispered to the Gentle Giant, “I did not 
know it was coming.” 

“Everything bright and beautiful is 
where you are,” he whispered back. 

So it was that the Gentle Giant won his 
beautiful bride ; that the trees of the All- 
Alone Axe were never again dragged away; 
and that the Wizard Squirrel was never 
59 


The House with the Silver Door 
driven from his home in the Ancient 
Oak. 

But all this time the father and the 
mother were in their cottage far away in 
the depths of the forest. At twilight the two 
often sat in the doorway and talked about 
their children. 

“They will come home some day,” de- 
clared the mother bravely. 

“We shall never see them again,” said 
the father. 

One night as they were saying this, they 
heard from far away a tramping of many 
horses. Up the forest road they came, their 
hoofs beating softly on the mossy ground. 
When they were in full sight, the father and 
the mother saw, first, a long line of knights 
in red armor, riding on milk-white horses ; 
then a line of knights in blue armor, riding 
on horses black as the darkness itself. So 
they came. There were knights in green and 
60 


The House with the Silver Door 

knights in yellow ; and last of all, there were 
three chariots abreast and an empty one 
behind them. The chariot on the left was 
made of steel that flashed in the light of the 
torches. In it sat a handsome young man. 
Beside him was his princess, and she was all 
aglow with softly gleaming pearls. On the 
right was an immense chariot of silver, and 
in this was a giant with so gentle a face that 
no one could ever be afraid of him, even 
though he was so large. He, too, had a bride 
sitting beside him. She had strings and 
strings of opals about her throat. Over 
them and over her face played a soft clear 
light that was almost like the moonbeams 
on the water. Between these two chariots 
was a third. It was all ablaze with dia- 
monds, and in it sat one that every one 
who looked upon him would have known 
to be a king. The shadows were growing 
deeper, but a brilliant light that did not 
61 


The House with the Silver Door 

come from tlie torches was all about him 
and his beautiful bride. Whenever they 
spoke or looked at each other, the light 
flashed joyfully and made all around them 
as bright as day. 

The father and the mother sat in the 
door, saying never a word, but looking and 
looking and looking. The wonderful pro- 
cession swept past their humble little cot- 
tage, until the three chariots were in front 
of the door. Then they stopped. The father 
and the mother rose quickly and bowed 
themselves before the king. 

“ It is ordered that you shall no longer 
dwell in this cottage,” he said gravely. 

At first the father and the mother were 
too grieved and alarmed to speak, but 
finally the mother plucked up courage to 
plead : — 

“0 king, if you will only let us stay 
here till the children come home! We will 
62 


The House with the Silver Door 

do never a bit of barm. We won’t even pick 
up the dead sticks for firewood, or the dry 
grass to make our bed. If we go away, the 
children will not know where to find us, 
and we shall never see them again. Please, 
please let us stay till we have seen them 
just once more.” 

The king shook his head sternly and 
said: — 

“You are to live here no longer.” 

Then the father hid his face in his hands 
and the mother threw her apron over her 
head; but in a moment the young man 
had sprung down from the chariot of steel 
and was crying, “Father, father, don’t you 
know your own boy?” And the beautiful 
young woman who had been in the chariot 
that was all a-glitter with diamonds had 
pulled the apron away from the face of the 
mother and was crying, “ Mother, mother, 
have you forgotten your own daughter? ” 
63 


The House with the Silver Door 

The Moon King sent away the knights, 
and then he and Silvergirl, the Pearl Prin- 
cess and Silverboy, and the Moon Lady 
and the Gentle Giant sat down together 
on the soft grass just outside the cottage. 
Such stories as they had to tell of the search 
for the silver door! They told about the 
"Wizard Squirrel, the All- Alone Axe, the 
"Wonder Palace, the Slippery Spider, and no 
one can say how many other folk. They 
talked and talked and talked; and while 
they were talking, they heard a funny little 
chattering over their heads. They all looked 
up, and there on the bough of a pine tree sat 
the Wizard Squirrel and the All- Alone Axe, 
hobnobbing in the most sociable way, while 
the Friendly Glowworm and the Thoughtful 
Snail, who had come, of course, with the rest 
of the company and were now sitting on 
the moss at the foot of the tree, were star- 
ing at them with all their eyes, for they had 
64 


The House with the Silver Door 

never before seen an axe and a squirrel 
dancing together on a branch. 

For three days and three nights the 
happy people talked of the wonderful 
things that had happened. Then Silvergirl 
said: — 

“But, father and mother, you haven’t 
asked for the silver door.” 

“Little we care for silver doors,” they 
cried, “now that we have our children back 
again.” 

“But we have one for you. It is in the 
country of the Moon King; and when you 
go through the silver door, you come into 
a golden palace. Will you come with us 
and stay all your lives long?” 

“Yes, we will come,” said the father and 
the mother, and they stepped joyfully into 
the golden chariot that had been empty 
before. 

Then the knights came back and lifted 
65 


The House with the Silver Door 

their plumed hats and bowed before the 
father and the mother. They all rode away 
and away and away from the gloomy forest 
to the happy country of the Moon King; 
and when a messenger last came from that 
country, they were all living together in the 
greatest peace and happiness in the beauti- 
ful golden palace with the silver door. 


KING HANSEL THE FIRST 



KING HANSEL THE FIRST 


T HERE was once a boy named Hansel 
who had lost his father, mother, and 
sister. Some people thought that they had 
been stolen by trolls, but no one knew cer- 
tainly. Everybody’s house was full, and 
there was no room for the lonely little boy. 
“There is nothing for you to do but to go 
out into the world and seek your fortune,” 
people said to him ; so Hansel put on his 
little cap and started out. 

He walked along the highway until he 
came to a place where four roads met. The 
first went through a forest; the second 
went down a steep hill ; the third led over 
a sunny plain ; and the fourth wound up a 
bleak, rocky mountainside. “When one 
has nowhere to go, one road is as good as 
another,” said Hansel to himself, and he 
69 


King Hansel the First 

looked at each in turn. The sun was warm 
and the forest looked cool and shady, so 
he decided to go through the forest. 

The road was soft and mossy. There were 
many flowers along the way. Every little 
while there were open glades that were red 
with sweet wild strawberries. He often 
stopped to pick them, and as he went 
along, he said to himself, “ It isn’t so bad 
a thing, after all, to have to seek one’s for- 
tune — if I only had a father and mother 
to go back to after I have found it. Such a 
pleasant road as this must lead to some 
beautiful place. Maybe I shall come to a 
palace. It will be made of gold, of course, 
and the windows will sparkle like dia- 
monds. I will go around to the smallest 
back door and ask, ‘ Do you want a boy to 
herd the sheep or the cattle ? ’ The king’s 
man will answer, ‘ Yes, we do. Come in and 
we will pay you a silver penny every month. ’ 
70 


King Hansel the First 

I can grow up fast, and some day, when the 
king’s daughter is crossing the river, she 
will fall in and I — ” 

These thoughts were broken in upon by 
a pitiful noise of a sort that the boy had 
never heard before. It sounded a little like 
the crowing of a cock, but it was hoarse 
and half-stifled. “Some creature is in 
trouble,” said Hans to himself. “ I ’ll hurry 
on and see what it is.” He ran down the 
road, and every minute the crying sounded 
louder and more distressed. At last he came 
to a tiny clearing where a little hut was 
standing. The door was closed and the 
owner had evidently gone from home. Not 
far from the house was a coop, and in the 
coop was one lone cock. 

‘ < Please give me some water, ’ ’ he begged; 
“lam dying of thirst.” 

“Where shall I find it? ” Hansel asked. 
“Indeed, I don’t know, ’’the cock gasped. 

71 


King Hansel the First 
“The brook said it was tired of having 
creatures drink it. ‘ I don’t drink them,’ 
it said, ‘ and why should I let them drink 
me ? ’ and then it ran off downhill as fast 
as it could go. But do find me some water. 
1 am choking.” 

Hansel began to search for water, but 
not a pool or a pond or a river or a brook 
or a spring or a swamp could be found. 
There was not even a drop of dew to carry 
to the suffering cock, for the sun was warm 
and even the dew had vanished. Then 
Hansel went back and said : — 

“I have searched the country through, 
and not a drop of water can I find.” 

“ Then I shall die,” the cock groaned. 

“ No, you won’t,” said the boy cheerily, 
“ for I ’m going to dig a well for you.” 

Hansel looked all around the little place 
and at last he found a spade. Then he 
pulled off his jacket and began to dig. The 
72 


King Hansel the First 

sun grew hotter and hotter, but still he 
kept at it. 

“ Have you found water yet ? ” cried the 
cock, after a little while. 

“Not yet,” answered Hansel, “but the 
farther I dig, the nearer I am to it,” and 
he dug faster than ever. 

“Have you found it yet?” asked the 
cock again, a little later. 

“ The earth is moist,” Hansel answered ; 
but he was now so deep down in the hole 
that his voice could hardly be heard. 

“Have you found it yet?” the cock 
gasped faintly, after a few minutes. “I 
can’t stand .up any longer. I think I am 
dying.” 

Hansel was now so deep down that he 
could not hear the cock’s question; but 
he gave it a good answer, nevertheless, 
for he climbed out of the well as fast as 
ever he could. The water was coming in 
73 


King Hansel the First 

by pailfuls, and be carried his cap all full 
and dripping to the thirsty cock. 

It was not long before the cock was as 
well as ever. Hansel made a little trench 
from the well to the coop so that the poor 
thing should not suffer from thirst again. 
Then he said : — 

“ Good-bye, Friend Cock. I must go on 
my way now, for I am seeking my for- 
tune.” 

“But I haven’t thanked you yet,” said 
the cock. “How shall I pay you for what 
you have done for me?” 

“Oh, I don’t want any pay,” called 
Hansel over his shoulder, for he was already 
on his way. 

“But I have a gift for you,” cried the 
cock, and Hansel went back. The cock 
stretched his neck through the bars of the 
coop. Something was in his bill. 

“This is for you,” he said, and he 
74 


King Hansel the First 
dropped a little black seed into the boy’s 
hand. “When you are in trouble, plant 
that seed.” 

“ Thank you very much,” said Hansel. 
“I ’ll keep it to remember you by,” and 
he dropped it into his pocket. “ Good-bye 
again,” he called. 

“ Oh, but wait a minute,” pleaded the 
cock. “ I have some advice for you.” 

“All right,” replied the boy good-na- 
turedly. “What is it? Advice is n’t heavy, 
and I can carry it in the same pocket with 
the seed.” 

“The first time that a giant asks you a 
question, be sure to answer ‘Yes.’ ” 

“ I hope I ’ll not meet any giants, but if 
I do, I’ll not forget,” Hansel promised. 
“ All good things are three, so good-bye 
again.” 

“Then gifts should be three,” declared 
the cock, “ and the third is yet to come. 

75 


King Hansel the First 
This is a bit of advice, too. There’s no 
good fortune down this road. Whoever 
walks beyond this house comes to trouble. 
Turn back and choose another way.” 

Hansel hesitated, for he remembered 
how hot and sandy or rocky the other 
roads looked; but he remembered, too, 
what his old nurse used to say, “ There ’s 
many and many a thing that the beasts 
and birds know which men and women 
have yet to learn.” 

“I’ll go back,” he said; “and now 
good-bye for the last time.” 

“ Good-bye,” called the cock, with a 
cheery crow. “Don’t lose the seed and 
don’t forget to say ‘ Yes ’ to the first ques- 
tion that a giant asks you.” 

Then Hansel went back through the 
forest, and it was not long before he came 
to the place where the four roads met. 
“ One is as good as another,” he said to 
76 


King Hansel the First 

himself again, “and I may as well take 
the second.” 

At first it was not an easy road, for it 
went down a steep hill covered with round 
stones. The boy had to pick his way 
among them as gingerly as if they had 
been eggs. But when he was once at the 
foot of the hill, it became a very pleasant 
road, for it went along beside the shore of 
a pretty lake. The tiny waves rippled up 
against the yellow sand as if they thought 
the little lake was a real ocean and them- 
selves real breakers. Pearly shells lay on 
the shore. Hansel picked up a handful 
and walked along tossing them up in the 
air and catching them. Then he began to 
talk to himself. He said : — 

“ Nurse used to tell me about the King 
of the Water World. He lives in a cave far 
down in the ocean. He wears a crown of 
pearls and he sits on a throne. The sun 
77 


King Hansel the First 
never shines there, but the walls of the cave 
are covered with rubies and emeralds, and 
they sparkle so that it is as light as day. 
When I come near his palace, I will ask if 
he has any work that a boy can do. He 
will say, ‘Yes, one of my mermaids has 
been stolen away from me, and I will give 
you half of my kingdom if you will bring 
her back.’ Then I will go far and far and 
farther than far. I will go through groves 
of coral, over beds of green and blue and 
yellow sea-mosses. I shall see shells of 
crimson and silver and gold ; but I won’t 
stop for one of them. I ’ll go on and on and 
on till I come to the den of the sea-monster 
that stole the mermaid. There ’ll be a little 
hole in her dungeon, and she will stretch 
out her white hand and beckon me. I ’ll 
kill the dragon and — ” 

“Meow, meow! ” came to his ears; “help 
me, help me!” 


78 


King Hansel the First 

“I know what that is, anyhow,” said the 
boy to himself ; and he called, ‘ ‘ Pussy, pussy, 
what 's the matter? I ’m coming to help you. 
But where are you ? ” he cried, for no cat 
was in sight. 

“Meow, meow!” wailed the cat, and 
Hansel began to search for her. Far out in 
the lake was a tiny green island, and the 
cries seemed to come from that, though 
nothing was to be seen on it but a sandy 
beach, a rock, and a tall tree. Hansel 
waded out into the lake, but the water grew 
deep so fast that he had to go back to the 
shore. Still the pitiful cxies continued. The 
boy threw off his clothes and swam out to 
the island. Behind the rock lay a heavy 
bag, tied with seven knots ; and it was from 
the bag that the cries were coming. 

“ Hold on, pussy, 1 11 get you out,” he 
said, and he set to work to untie the seven 
knots. Each one was more difficult than 
79 


King Hansel the First 

the ones before it, but at last the seventh 
had been untied, and a poor, forlorn, yellow- 
and-black cat crept out. Hansel stroked 
her wet fur and rubbed it dry with some 
bits of dead grass. The cat purred and 
arched her back and rubbed her head 
against his hand. 

“How did you happen to be in that 
bag ?” he asked. 

“ Some one gave my master a pretty 
gray cat,” she replied. “ He said he did not 
want two, and so he tied me up in the bag 
and threw me into the lake.” 

“I’m glad I came along in time to get 
you out,” said Hansel heartily. “If you 
will sit on my shoulder, I will swim ashore 
and carry you.” 

The cat sprang eagerly to his shoulder, 
and he started to swim ashore. At first she 
was as light as a feather, but before they 
had gone far from the island, she began to 
80 


King Hansel the First 

grow heavy. She grew heavier and heavier, 
but the boy would not throw her off to drown. 
He struggled on and came at last to the 
shore, but he was so tired that he could 
hardly stand. As he lay on the shore rest- 
ing, the cat scrambled about among the 
bushes, and seemed to be searching for 
something. 

After a little, the boy cried: — 

“Good-bye, pussy, good-bye. When a 
boy is seeking his fortune, he must seek 
it,” and he started to go on farther. 

“ But I have n’t thanked you yet,” cried 
the cat, running out of the bushes. “ What 
shall I give you for what you have done 
for me?” 

“ Oh, I don’t want any reward,” cried 
Hansel. “I’m glad I got you out.” 

“But I have a gift for you,” called 
the cat, and Hansel went back. The cat 
dropped a tiny white seed into his hand. 

81 


King Hansel the First 

“When you are in trouble, plant that,” 
she said. 

“Thank you, thank you,” said Hansel. 
“I’ll keep it to remember you by,” and 
he put it into his pocket to lie beside the 
little black seed. “Good-bye again,” he 
cried. 

“Ah, but wait a minute,” pleaded the 
cat. “I have some advice for you.” 

“Iam getting so much advice,” thought 
Hansel, “ that I am afraid I shall be a wise 
man before I have made my fortune ” ; but 
he said aloud, “All right, what is it? I can 
carry it in another pocket.” 

“The second time that a giant asks you 
a question, be sure to answer, ‘ With salt.’ ” 

“ With salt, with salt,” repeated the boy. 
“ To the first question I am to answer ‘ Yes, ’ 
and to the second I must say, ‘ With salt.’ 
I certainly hope I shan’t meet any giants, 
but if there ’s nothing harder to do than 
82 


King Hansel the First 

to answer a few questions, I can surely do 
that. Good-bye again, I ’m going on till I 
find my fortune.” 

“But there ’s no good fortune down this 
road,” said the cat. “Whoever passes this 
lake comes to trouble. Turn back and 
choose another road.” 

The thought of that long, long hill with 
the rolling stones was not very pleasant, 
and Hansel hesitated ; but the cat looked 
at him so earnestly that at last he an- 
swered : — 

“All right, pussy, I’ll go back and I 
won’t lose the little white seed.” 

“And don’t forget to say ‘With salt ’ to 
the second question,” cried the cat. 

“No, I won’t. Good-bye, pussy, good- 
bye.” 

Climbing the long hill was not nearly so 
hard as he had expected, for he had rolled 
so many of the round stones from the path 
83 


King Hansel the First 
as lie went down. Then, too, the sun was 
no longer directly overhead. Indeed, the 
air grew cooler and cooler, and when he 
came to where the four roads met, it was 
so cold that he had to blow on his fingers 
to keep them from being stiff and numb. 

“I suppose a boy can seek his fortune 
whether it is hot or cold,” thought Hansel, 
and he set off bravely to walk in the third 
road. This seemed to lead directly across 
a vast plain ; but he could not see very far, 
for there were thick clouds of dust blow- 
ing in little whirlwinds. “All this dust 
must come from some great city,” thought 
the boy. “Perhaps I shall come to it before 
long. I will go straight to the Lord Mayor, 
and say, ‘ Sir Lord Mayor, is there any- 
thing for a boy to do to make his fortune? ’ 
He will answer, ‘ Yes, one of my ships is 
all ready to sail. You may sail with her, and 
if you have anything to venture, perhaps 
84 


King Hansel the First 

you will make your fortune in one voyage. 
What have you to send ? ’ Then I ’ll say, 
‘ Sir Lord Mayor, I have a black seed and 
a white one.’ No, I forget, if he happens to 
be a giant, I must say ‘Yes’ to the first 
question. That will be such nonsense that 
he will think I am a philosopher, and he 
will say, ‘I need another counselor, and 
I ’ll take you. You shall have a long red 
gown and a white wig, and every morning 
before breakfast you shall have a great 
piece of red, red gold.’ I will say ‘Thank 
you, I — ’” 

Without thinking what he was about, 
Hansel had been talking aloud ; and now 
the words were fairly blown from his lips, 
for a great storm had suddenly arisen. Big 
hailstones beat upon him. He was thrown 
into the brambles and against the stones. 
His cap was lost, his clothes were torn, and 
he was almost exhausted when at last he 
85 


King Hansel the First 

managed to get into the shelter of a high 
Took that kept the biting wind from 
him. 

It seemed to him that he had hardly taken 
three long breaths before he heard a loud 
buzzing. “Come and help us,” it said; 
“come and help us.” 

“I knew cocks could talk,” thought 
Hansel in surprise, “and cats can, of 
course, but I never heard bees talk before. 
They must be in some great trouble. I 
can’t do anything to help them, that ’s sure, 
for it is all I can do to get my breath.” 

“Come and help us,” buzzed the bees, 
until Hansel could not bear to hear their 
pleading any longer and he asked : — 

“ What is the matter? ” 

“ Our hive is blown over,” they replied. 
“The storm came up so suddenly that 
many bees are away, and when they come 
back, they will not know where to go if 
86 


King Hansel the First 

the hive is not in its place. Do put it back 
for us.” 

“ Surely, I can do so much for them if I 
am tired,” thought Hansel; and he asked, 
“ Where does your hive belong? ” 

“ On top of this high rock,” they re- 
plied. 

“ I should n’t think it would stay there 
in this wind,” said Hansel to himself, 
“ but I suppose they know best. People 
say that bees are wise, and maybe they 
know some way of making it firm.” — “I 
don’t know whether I can climb the rock 
in this storm,” he said aloud, “but at 
least I can try.” 

So Hansel took up the beehive carefully 
and began to climb. It seemed at every 
step as if the wind would surely blow him 
away ; but he kept on and on, and at last 
he was at the top of the rock and had 
put the hive into the place that the bees 
87 


King Hansel the First 

pointed out. The storm grew worse and 
worse until it almost seemed as if the rock 
itself would be blown over. 

“ I don’t see how your hive is going to 
stay there,” said Hansel. “ The moment I 
let go, it will fall down and be blown to 
nobody knows where.” 

“Please stay and hold it for us,” the 
bees pleaded anxiously. 

“ It ’s all I can do to hold my head on 
my shoulders,” replied Hansel. 

But the bees still begged, “ Do stay and 
help us, do help us.” 

“ All right, I ’ll try it,” said Hansel, 
“but it looks as if the hive and the rock 
and myself would all blow away together.” 

The wind blew as if it feared it would 
never have another chance and meant to 
make the best of this one. The rain fell, 
not in drops, it seemed to Hansel, or in 
pailfuls, but in whole pondfuls, in ocean- 
88 


King Hansel the First 
fuls. He threw one arm around the hive 
and the other around a jagged point of 
rock, and there he clung for dear life. It 
was a hard pull for the tired boy, but 
after a while the storm cleared as sud- 
denly as it had arisen. Many of the wan- 
dering bees returned and made their way 
into the hive and were safe. The other 
bees buzzed a welcome to them, and Han- 
sel could not help being glad that he had 
saved their home. They clustered around 
Hansel and buzzed their thanks into his 
ear. They gave him all the honey he could 
eat and a fine large piece of comb to carry 
away with him. 

“But where are you going?” they asked. 

“Everywhere and nowhere,” answered 
Hansel. “I haven’t any father or any 
mother or any place to stay in, and I am 
going out into the world to seek my 
fortune.” 


89 


King Hansel the First 

“ There ’s no good fortune to be found 
on this road,” declared the bees. “You 
must go back to where the four roads 
meet and choose another.” 

“ There are roads enough in the world,” 
said Hansel with a laugh, “but some- 
how none of them seem to be the right 
ones.” 

“ Every one has his own road,” said the 
bees. “ Some find it in one day, some in 
two days, and some in three days, but 
there is surely a road.” 

“ All right, I ’ll go back and try the road 
uphill,” Hansel said. “Bees are wise, I 
know. Can you tell me whether I shall 
find my fortune on that road ? The moun- 
tain is so steep that I am sure I should 
break my neck if I had to come down it 
by night ; and then, too, there are no more 
roads to try.” 

“We must not say any more,” buzzed the 
90 


King Hansel the First 
bees, “but we can make you a gift that 
will be of help in time of need ” ; and they 
brought out from the farthest corner of the 
hive a tiny seed as yellow as their own 
honey. “Take good care of this,” they said, 
“ for the time will come when you will have 
need of it. And there is one thing more ; 
we have some advice for you.” ' 

“I ’ve had two pieces already,” rejoined 
Hansel, laughing, “and yet I don’t seem to 
be wise enough to find the right road.” 

“At least, we can tell you something 
that will keep you from going where you 
do not wish to go,” buzzed the bees. 

“Thank you kindly,” said Hansel. “I 
will put it into my jacket pocket with the 
other pieces. When one has not much else 
to carry, he can surely carry a piece of 
advice. What is it, then?” 

“To the third question that a giant asks 
you, be sure to answer, ‘ In the land and 
91 


King Hansel the First 

in the sea,’ ” replied the bees earnestly. 
“Do not forget.” 

“No, I ’ll remember,” Hansel promised. 
“To the first question I am to say ‘Yes’; 
to the second, ‘With salt ’ ; and to the third, 
‘In the land and in the sea.’ I hope no one 
will ask me a fourth question, for I ’d have 
to answer that all out of my own wit. Now 
good-bye. Thank you kindly for the honey 
and the seed and the bit of advice. I ’ll 
turn back and go up the mountain if I can 
see to find the road.” He waved his hand 
in farewell, turned back, and crossed the 
plain once more. 

Before long he was at the place where 
the four roads met. He could not exactly 
“choose ” which one to take, for there was 
only one left that he had not tried ; but he 
gazed for at least three minutes at the long, 
winding way that disappeared in the shad- 
ows. He fancied that there was a heavy 
92 


King Hansel the First 

stone castle at the top of the mountain, 
but it was fast growing dusky and he could 
not be sure whether what he saw was not 
a gray cloud. It was a lonely road to follow 
in the twilight, and Hansel could not help 
thinking of the other boys who were safe 
in their own homes; but he was a stout- 
hearted little fellow, and he said to himself, 
“I suppose that if a boy is seeking his for- 
tune, he must seek it; and since the end 
of the road won’t come to me, why, then, 
I ’ll go to the end of the road.” And he set 
off bravely to climb the mountain. 

The road wound about and went in 
many zigzags, but at last Hansel was at 
the top of the mountain. Sure enough, 
there was a great stone castle that towered 
up till the battlements really seemed to 
reach the clouds. Hansel walked timidly 
up to the gate and knocked. No one an- 
swered. He knocked again, for it was so 
. 93 


King Hansel the First 

dark and wild on the hill that he began 
to feel afraid. “If they will only let me 
come in,” he thought, “and give me a bit 
of straw to lie on, I don’t care for any 
grand fortune”; and he knocked a third 
time. 

Then the gate was opened a little way, 
and a great coarse hand as large as Hansel’s 
whole body was stretched out and pulled 
him in through the opening. Of course, 
the hand belonged to a giant, who was al- 
most as tall as the walls of the castle. The 
boy ventured to put his head back and take 
one look at the giant’s face. It would have 
been frightful enough in any case, for it 
looked so hateful; but it was especially 
startling because it had three eyes, one 
above each ear and one on the top of the 
head. The giant could see best with that, 
and now he bent his head over and glared 
at Hansel with it. This eye was red and 
94 



( O.W't 4; 




A GREAT COARSE HAND PULLED IIIM IN 



King Hansel the First 

fiery, and at its flashing the boy felt as 
though the lightning was about to strike 
him. The giant gazed a minute or two and 
then called: — 

“Brothers Humpkin and Lumpkin, 
here ’s a boy.” 

“Let’s eat him, Brother Mumpkin,” 
cried two harsh voices, and immediately 
two more dreadful giants came shambling 
out of the castle keep. One had three ears, 
and the other had three mouths. This third 
giant was Lumpkin, and he was the most 
horrible of the three, for he was continually 
grating his teeth and mumbling his heavy 
lips. 

“We’ll eat him, we’ll eat him,” they 
cried ; but when they caught sight of the 
boy and saw how small and thin he was, 
they laughed scornfully. 

“ He ’ll be only a mouthful apiece for 
us,” said Humpkin. Lumpkin, however, 
95 


King Hansel the First 
began to feel the boy’s ribs and thighs, 
pinching him now and then to see if the 
flesh was firm and solid. 

“ Maybe he ’ll not be so bad,” said Lump- 
kin. “We ’ll put him into one of the dun- 
geons, and in a day or two we’ll have a 
feast. These little creatures are small, but 
they are tender.” 

Now one giant would have been enough 
to frighten anybody, but with three such 
monsters before him it is no wonder that 
Hansel was white with terror. Mumpkin 
held him up by the back of the neck as if 
he was a kitten and demanded : — 

“Do they eat boys in the land of the 
Pogglywogs ? ” 

If Hansel had answered, “I don’t know,” 
the giant would probably have retorted, 
“You’ll find out that we do here,” and 
perhaps have taken a bite on the instant, 
but Hansel in all his terror had not forgot- 
96 


King Hansel the First 

ten his promise to the cock, and he faltered, 
“Yes.” 

“Listen to that! ’’cried Humpkin. “Now 
we ’ll know how the Pogglywogs do it, for 
we must do like them if we want to grow 
any taller.” 

Then Mumpkin gave the boy a pinch to 
make sure that he was attending and asked 
in a voice that sounded like distant thun- 
der : — 

“How do they eat them?” 

“ With salt,” answered the boy faintly. 

“He says, ‘With salt,’” repeated Mump- 
kin. “What’s salt? I never saw any. You 
boy, where do they find salt? ” 

“ In the sea and in the land,” answered 
the boy. 

‘“In the sea and in the land,’ ” repeated 
Mumpkin. “ There ’s one thing sure, we 
must have some salt, whatever it may be. 
Humpkin, if you will take the boy to the 
97 


King Hansel the First 

dungeon, I ’ll go out and look the land 
through for some salt.” 

So poor Hansel was taken to the dungeon 
and left there. Giants are usually dull, and 
although these monsters wanted him to 
grow fat, it never entered their stupid 
heads that they must give him anything to 
eat. They shut the door, locked and bolted 
it, and went away, thinking what a dainty 
morsel would be ready for them when 
Mumpkin came back with the salt. 

“ It won’t take him long to find it,” said 
Humpkin. “ That third eye of his can see 
all there is to see.” 

“1 wonder where he will go,” said 
Lumpkin. 

“ Oh, not farther than the foot of the 
hill,” declared Humpkin. “There isn’t 
much land beyond.” 

While they were talking, Mumpkin was 
plunging down the hill. He kicked the 
98 


King Hansel the First 

great stones from his path as if they were 
only so many pebbles, and he tore up the 
bushes and little trees along his way. It 
was night, of course, but that made no dif- 
ference, for, as any three-eyed person knows, 
one who has three eyes can see as well in 
the night as in the daytime. When he came 
to the foot of the hill, he looked around at 
the different roads. He did not know any- 
thing about salt and thought it was as 
likely to grow on trees as anywhere else, so 
he started to go through the forest. With 
two eyes he looked at the trees on either 
side of the way and with the third, the one 
on the top of his head, he kept close watch 
of the moon. “ I heard once that the moon 
was made of green cheese,” he said to him- 
self, “ and maybe salt is a kind of cheese.” 

Now Mumpkin was not at all used to 
thinking, and he was so tired by this effort 
that he had to sit down to rest. He fell 


99 


King Hansel the First 
asleep and slept a long while. He was 
awakened by a loud “Cock-a-doodle-doo! ” 
directly in front of him. The giant rubbed 
his three eyes and looked around. A big 
handsome cock was strutting up and down 
in the path, looking at the monster as if 
he were a new kind of worm that might 
or might not be good to eat. 

“Get out of the road!” roared the 
giant. 

“With pleasure,” replied the cock. It 
gave a little flutter with its wings and in 
a moment it was resting comfortably on 
the giant’s left shoulder. 

“ Yah! Get off ! ” the giant growled. 

“Certainly,” the cock replied, “but if 
you knew how much I know, you would be 
glad to have me whisper in your ear.” 

“ I ’ll wring your neck,” roared the giant, 
and put up his hand to catch the cock ; but 
in a twinkling the bird was on the limb 
100 


King Hansel the First 

of a tree higher than even a giant could 
well reach. 

‘ ‘ Are you going farther down this road ? ” 
the cock asked. 

“Yes, I am,” said the giant. “I am 
going to find salt ; but it ’s no business of 
yours.” 

“ May I give you a bit of advice? ” asked 
the cock politely. 

“ Keep your advice to yourself, ’’the giant 
growled. 

“But I have to give it,” said the cock. 
“ That is what I am put here for. It is this : 
Do not go down this road any farther. 
There is no salt here, and if you go, some- 
thing will surely happen to you.” 

“ Something might happen to you, you 
stupid little bunch of bill and feathers,” 
shouted the giant angrily, “but things 
don’t happen to folk as big as I am, I ’ll 
have you know.” And he started off down 
101 


King Hansel the First 

the road faster than he had ever walked 
before in all his life. 

For a long while nothing happened ex- 
cept that the trees grew taller and taller; 
but suddenly the giant heard a growling 
which sounded louder than any growling 
that he had ever heard before, and in a 
moment a dreadful creature came out of 
the woods. It was a thousand times as big 
as the giant. Its enormous tail switched 
from side to side. It walked on four legs, 
and when it stretched one of them out, the 
giant saw that it was armed with sharp 
claws almost as long as his whole body. 
The creature was covered with a thick 
growth of yellow and black hair which stood 
on end at the sight of the strange object 
in the road. It glared at him with horrible 
great yellow eyes, and then put out one 
big paw to touch him and rolled him over 
and over in the dust. Never was a giant 
102 


King Hansel the First 

so terribly frightened before. The monster 
tumbled him about and played with him 
awhile, then gave a great yawn which re- 
vealed a vast cavern of a mouth as red as 
a fiery furnace, and walked away. 

The giant lay trembling, but after a time 
he shook himself and turned toward home. 
“ Salt or no salt, I ’ll go no farther,” he de- 
clared. “I ’ll go home, and I ’ll run faster 
than any giant ever ran before.” 

He ran as fast as he could, but somehow 
he did not get over the ground at all rapidly. 
It seemed a long way from one tree to an- 
other. He was tired and he was thirsty. 
He stopped at a clear, quiet little pool to 
get a drink. A beetle sat in the bottom of 
the pool, looking straight at him. “ I never 
saw a beetle like that in the water before,” 
growled the giant, and he made an ugly 
face at it. The beetle did the same, but 
made no reply. The giant drank what he 
103 


King Hansel the First 

wanted and went on. It was a long, long 
way. The sun rose and the sun set many 
and many a time, but at last the giant was 
at the gate of the castle. 

“Let me in,” he cried. “I tell you, let 
me in.” He pounded on the gate with all 
his might, and at last he heard his bro- 
thers coming. “ I ’ll kill them, ’ ’ he growled, 

‘ ‘ for keeping me out here, ’ ’ and he thumped 
louder than ever. At last Lumpkin opened 
the gate. 

“It is strange, isn’t it,” he said, “that 
Mumpkin does not come. I suppose he ’s 
found something good to eat, another boy, 
maybe, and he means to keep it all for him- 
self. I don’t care whether he comes or not, 
but I want that salt. Ugh ! what a horrid 
beetle that is,” and he crushed it with his 
foot. This was the end of Mumpkin. The 
forest was no ordinary forest, of course, 
but an enchanted wilderness ; and whoever 
104 


King Hansel the First 

went too far in it turned into some wild 
creature. The giant had not found it out, 
but he had really been a beetle for a long, 
long time, and the monster that had given 
him such a fright was only a playful 
cat. 

The brothers shut the gate and went into 
the castle again. They were tired of wait- 
ing for a mouthful of roasted boy, but they 
were always afraid that the other race 
of giants, the Pogglywogs, would become 
larger than they ; and now that they had 
heard that the Pogglywogs ate salt with 
their boys, they did not want to taste this 
one without it. 

“I won’t wait any longer,” declared 
Lumpkin. “I’m going to find some salt, 
and what ’s more, I won’t be so long about 
it as that stupid lubber.” So the second 
giant set out to search for salt. When he 
came to the foot of the mountain, he looked 
105 


King Hansel the First 
at the three roads and concluded to go 
on the one that went still farther down. 
The rolling stones gave him considerable 
trouble, and more than once he had rather 
a hard fall because of them. He was half- 
stunned by the last tumble, and he lay on 
the ground a minute or two before he tried 
to get up. When he rose again and looked 
around him, there stood a cock quietly 
watching him. 

“May I ask,” said the cock politely, 
“ if you intend to go much farther on this 
road?” 

“ What ’s that to you ? ” growled Lump- 
kin, rubbing his bruised elbow and grating 
his teeth horribly. “I ’ll eat you, I will. I 
always eat cocks.” 

“ May I give you a bit of advice ? ” asked 
the cock. 

“No,” the giant thundered. ‘ ‘ I can make 
advice for myself. Get out.” 

106 


King Hansel the First 

“But I have to give it,” said the cock 
quietly. “That is what I am put here 
for. This is it : Do not go down this road 
any farther. There is no salt here, and if 
you go, something will surely happen to 
you.” 

“ Something will happen to you ! ” 
shouted the giant, and with all three 
mouths at once he tried to bite the cock's 
head off. The cock flew up on the limb of 
a great tree, far above the head of the giant, 
and sat there watching as the giant strode 
off down the hill. 

It was not long before he came to a lake. 
Now the giant had never seen water in that 
form before. This looked smooth and easy 
to walk on, so he set out to walk on it in- 
stead of on the road. Even near the shore 
the water was deep, and in a little less than 
no time the giant was down on his knees 
in the lake, spluttering and storming and 
107 


King Hansel the First 

snarling and growling and grating liis teeth 
together as if he meant to eat even the 
rocks and the sand. 

“ There are better ways of getting over 
the water than trying to walk on it,” said 
a voice pleasantly. 

The giant staggered to his feet and looked 
around. 

“ Eh ? ” said he. 

“ There are better ways of getting over 
the water than trying to walk on it,” the 
voice repeated ; and now the giant saw that 
it proceeded from a boat that was coming 
nearer and nearer. In the boat was a yel- 
low-and-black cat, who bowed politely and 
sat waiting for him to speak. 

“ What ’s that thing you ’re in ? ” de- 
manded the giant. 

“ This is a boat,” the cat replied. “ With 
it one can easily go on the water.” 

“ Get out, I want it,” the giant growled. 

108 


King Hansel the First 

The cat’s yellow eyes began to look fiery, 
but she asked very quietly : — 

“Are you sure that you can manage 
it?” 

“ Of course I can ; I am a hundred times 
as big as you.” 

“But I have a collar around my neck, 
and you have none.” 

“ I ’ll have one, too,” the giant cried. 
“ Where ’s the stuff you make it of ? ” 

“ There ’s some stuff you might use on 
the ground on the farther side of that big 
rock,” said the cat. “ See that you make 
it thick enough.” 

The giant picked up a great mass of the 
stuff. It was lead and it was exceedingly 
heavy, but he bent it and squeezed it and 
pulled it and punched it and jammed it 
and pounded it until he had made a collar 
big enough to go over his head with only 
the least bit of crowding. It would have 
109 


King Hansel the First 

taken at least ten common men to lift 
it, but the giant put it on without any 
trouble. 

“ Bring that boat to me,” he called in a 
voice that would have frightened most cats 
out of a year’s growth ; but this one only 
looked at him and slowly rowed the boat 
up to the shore. Then she sprang out 
lightly and curled herself up on a warm 
rock. The giant stepped on the gunwale of 
the boat with one of his enormous feet. 
Then he lifted the other foot, and, of course, 
the boat tipped over just as any other boat 
would have done, and in a moment the 
giant lay on the bottom of the lake. His 
head with the leaden collar was down and 
his heels were up ; and up they stayed, for 
this was the end of the three-mouthed giant 
Lumpkin. 

“Folk that never use their heads ought 
not to mind losing them,” said the cat, as 
110 


King Hansel the First 

she yawned comfortably and stretched 
herself out to take a nap. 

Meanwhile, several events had taken 
place in the castle of the three giants. 
Humpkin had more than once gone to the 
top of the tower and listened first with 
one ear, then with another, and then with 
all three ; but not a sound could he hear 
of either Mumpkin or Lumpkin. “I rather 
think they are killed,” he said, “and I’m 
glad of it, for now I ’ll eat that boy all by 
myself. I don’t care anything about salt, 
whatever it may be, and I ’ll go straight to 
the dungeon and get him.” 

Now several events had been happening 
in the dungeon also. At first it was a very 
white-faced and badly frightened boy who 
lay there on the damp floor ; but as hour 
after hour passed and no one came to harm 
him, he began to recover from his fright a 
little and to look about him to see if there 
111 


King Hansel the First 
was any way of making his escape. The 
walls were of stone, the window was far 
above his head, and the door was evidently 
locked and bolted. What could he do ? 

While he sat pondering, he thought he 
heard a sound on the other side of the wall 
as if some one was speaking. He could see 
a tiny crack in the wall, so he lay down on 
the floor and put his ear to the crack. Then 
he heard a voice that asked : — 

“Who are you?” 

“ I ’m a boy, and my name is Hansel. I 
came out to seek my fortune. The cock and 
the cat and the bees would n’t let me go on 
the other roads, and so I came here, and the 
giants caught me. They say they mean to 
eat me. Who are you ? ” 

“lama magician,” the voice replied. 
“Then why don’t you tear the castle 
down or kill the giants or call up an earth- 
quake or do something?” the boy cried. 

112 


King Hansel the First 
“I always thought magicians could do 
anything they chose.” 

“ So they can if they choose something 
that they can do,” declared the voice. “ But 
even magicians,” he added, “cannot do 
everything without anything.” 

“ Can’t you draw a magic circle so the 
giants can’t touch you?” asked Hansel. 

“ I could if I had anything to draw it 
with,” said the magician, “but I haven’t.” 

“I haven’t even a crumb of anything 
to eat,” said Hansel, “ and I am hungry as 
hungry.” 

“ Have n’t you a bit of bread or a kernel 
of corn or a grain of wheat about you ? ” 

“ Not one. I have only three little seeds 
of nobody knows what; a black one that a 
cock gave me ; a yellow one that some bees 
gave me ; and a white one that a cat gave 
me. They ’re of no use ; they would n’t 
make a mouthful for a sparrow.” 

113 


King Hansel the First 

“Maybe they will for a boy, though, ” said 
the magician thoughtfully. “I shouldn’t 
be in the least surprised if they were magic 
seeds. At any rate, they are of no use as 
they are, and you may as well plant them 
and see what will come up.” 

“There’s no earth to plant them in,” 
said Hansel. 

“That’s no matter,” replied the magi- 
cian. “Magic seeds do not need earth. 
Just lay one of them down in a corner 
and say over it : — 

I plant thee, seed, 

Now in my need. 

Be not afraid 
To lend thy aid.” 

So many strange things had come to 
pass that Hansel was almost afraid to have 
anything to do with the seeds; but he 
finally decided to plant the yellow one, 
and then, if nothing dreadful happened, 
114 


King Hansel the First 

to plant the black one, and after that, the 
white. He laid the yellow one down gently, 
repeated the magician’s spell over it, and 
turned away. Before he could get across 
the little room, he felt something touch his 
shoulder. It was a branch of a tree, and 
was loaded with bright red apples ; another 
was full of thick slices of bread and butter 
well sprinkled with sugar ; from another 
hung many little buckets of creamy milk ; 
another was weighted down with cake and 
gingerbread ; another with sugar cookies ; 
and yet another with tender, juicy roast beef 
and roast chicken. While he stood gazing 
at all these things, the tree kept on grow- 
ing ; and even before the hungry boy could 
put out his hand for a single mouthful, it 
had almost reached the top of the room, 
and every branch had something good on 
it. 

Hansel threw himself on the floor beside 
115 


King Hansel the First 

the crack in the wall and told the magi- 
cian of the amazing thing that had hap- 
pened. “ I wish I could get through this 
wall,” he said, “so I could give you some- 
thing to eat. Can’t you dig through it ? ” 
he asked eagerly. “Have n’t you any 
knife ? ” 

“The giants took it away,” replied the 
magician; “but never mind. Since your 
seeds are magic seeds, there is hope for 
us, and I don’t mind going hungry for a 
while. Be quick and plant another and see 
what will come of it.” 

Hansel planted the tiny black seed, say- 
ing over the same magic spell. He did not 
turn his back this time, you may be sure ; 
but now, although a little shoot came up 
at once, it grew more slowly, and it was at 
least ten minutes before it bore any fruit. 
Even when the fruit appeared, it did not 
look very valuable, for it was only one pod, 
116 


King Hansel the First 

long and brown and thick. Hansel told 
the magician about it, and before he had 
fairly finished speaking, he heard some- 
thing drop heavily on the floor behind 
him. The pod had ripened and burst and 
the fruit had fallen out — the biggest, 
sharpest, strongest jackknife that was ever 
made in all the world. 

“ Oh, oh ! ” cried Hansel. “ Now, Mr. 
Magician, I can dig through this wall.” 

That would not have been so easily done 
with any common knife ; but this one ac- 
tually seemed to dig of itself, for whether 
Hansel was holding it or not, it kept on 
working and the bits of stone kept on 
falling. It was not many minutes before 
the hole was large enough for a boy to 
creep through ; and through it Hansel went 
with his hands full of bread and butter 
and gingerbread and roast beef. 

If only there had been no giants to fear, 
117 


King Hansel the First 
the boy and the magician would have had 
a delightful time together. Even as it was, 
they had so much to tell that for a little 
while they forgot all about the third seed. 
At last the magician thought of it and he 
said : — 

“There is no knowing how soon the 
giants may come upon us. Hurry back and 
plant the third seed and see what help that 
will give us.” 

Then Hansel crept back and planted the 
little white seed. That was even slower 
than the black one in coming up ; but yet 
it was not many minutes before it was up 
to Hansel’s knees and had begun to form 
its fruit. Never was there such fruit seen 
before. It was perfectly white and round 
and hard. After a while it fell off, and Han- 
sel in great disappointment carried it to 
the magician. 

“Here it is,” he said, “but it is no 
118 


King Hansel the First 

good at all. It looks just like a piece of 
chalk.” 

Much to his surprise, the magician 
clapped his hands and cried : — 

“ This is best of all. Now we are safe. 
Come giant or dwarf or troll or demon, 
they cannot harm us.” 

Hansel was afraid the magician had gone 
mad, but in a moment he understood. The 
white fruit really was chalk, and in only two 
or three seconds longer than no time at all, 
the magician was down on his knees, draw- 
ing a magic circle about himself and the 
boy as fast as ever he could. 

“ There ! ” he said, with a deep sigh of 
relief. “ Nothing can hurt us now. There’s 
something else for you to know. The magic 
seeds were given to you, and, therefore, you 
have the right to ask three questions. What 
is the first? ” 

It did not take Hansel long to think what 
119 


King Hansel the First 

he wanted to know, and without a moment’s 
delay he cried : — 

“Please tell me where is the terrible 
giant with three eyes?” 

“ He lies dead outside the gate of the 
castle,” said a voice. 

“Where is the one with the three 
mouths? ” 

“ His feet are in the air, his head in the 
water, and he is drowned as dead as a 
stone,” replied the voice. 

“ And where is the one with the three 
ears ? ” 

“ He stands outside the dungeon and is 
just about to open the door,” was the reply ; 
and sure enough, the bolts were drawn, 
the key was turned, and the giant Hump- 
kin strode into the room. 

“ How did you get here, you young ras- 
cal, you? ” he roared. “I put you into the 
other dungeon to wait till I came to eat 
120 


King Hansel the First 

you. You ’ll pay for this, you will.” Hump- 
kin caught him by the arm, or rather, tried 
to catch him, for the instant the giant put 
one foot within the circle, something or 
other struck him a heavy blow. He tried 
again, and this time he was struck so ter- 
ribly that he howled with pain and fright 
and ran for his life, leaving all the doors 
wide open behind him. 

“Come,” cried the magician; “come 
quick ! ” He caught the boy by the hand 
and half dragged him out of the dun- 
geon. “ Stay there,” he said when they 
had come to the courtyard, and he him- 
self ran through the gate of the castle. 
Then, while Humpkin was half running 
and half rolling down the mountain, the 
magician, too, was running as fast as he 
could go, making a wide chalk mark en- 
tirely around the castle. When this was 
done, he went back into the court, not 
121 


King Hansel the First 

troubling himself to close the gate, and 
called to Hansel. 

“Come, let ’s go up into the tower,” he 
said, “and see what will happen.” 

They climbed to the top of the highest 
tower and looked around. Pretty soon they 
saw Humpkin come stumbling up the hill, 
snarling and growling and by turns rub- 
bing his head and shaking his great fist. 
“I’ll be there,” he muttered, “and then 
you ’ll pay for this, you will. I ’ll eat you 
both before you can say — • ‘ Oh ! Oh ! ’” 
he screeched, for again he had touched the 
magic circle, and a third blow, worse than 
either of the others, had sent him a quarter 
of a league from the gate. He tried again 
and again, but as he made the third at- 
tempt, a swarm of bees flew into his face, 
buzzing and stinging so savagely that they 
drove him over the cliff. This cliff was so 
high that he broke into pieces long before 
122 


King Hansel the First 
he reached the bottom, such small pieces 
that as yet no one has ever found even one 
of them. 

After the magician and Hansel had seen 
the last of the giant, they came down from 
the tower and began to look through the 
castle. Of course there were, as in every 
giant’s castle, rooms upon rooms filled 
from floor to ceiling with silver and gold ; 
there were others fairly crammed with 
diamonds and rubies and emeralds and 
pearls. 

“You will be the richest boy in the 
whole land,” said the magician. “You are 
king, of course.” 

“Why, aren’t you going to be king?” 
asked the boy, with wide-open eyes. 

“King? No, not I. I am a magician,” 
was the proud reply. “ Only let me have 
a quiet tower where no one ever slams the 
doors or interrupts me when I am making 
123 


King Hansel the First 
my calculations, and I would not give a fig 
for all tlie gold and jewels in the castle. 
But come, now, and let us go down into the 
dungeons. There may be some one else 
shut up there.” 

Down into the dungeons they went. The 
giant’s keys were sticking in the door of 
the dungeon where the magician had been 
shut up. Boom after room was unlocked, 
but no one was to be seen. 

“We must have been the only prison- 
ers,” said the magician. “There seem to 
be no more rooms.” 

“I thought I saw a little door out of that 
dark place under the stairs,” Hansel said. 
“Maybe that ’s a room.” 

“We’ll see,” said the magician, and he 
tried key after key, but none of them fitted. 
“I fancy there’s a touch of magic about 
this,” he said thoughtfully. “ Some magi- 
cian must have been here and made this 
124 


King Hansel the First 
lock. There ’s one thing sure, what magic 
has done, magic can undo.” 

He drew a circle entirely around the little 
door and wrote some mysterious figures 
and signs within it. He had hardly finished 
the last one before the door flung itself 
open. There stood a tall, stately man, and 
by his side was a beautiful woman with 
her arm thrown closely around a young girl 
two or three years older than Hansel. 

Now comes the strangest part of the 
whole story and the one that is hardest to 
believe, for these three people proved to be 
Hansel’s father and mother and sister. 
They had really been stolen away by trolls, 
as their friends thought, and had been put 
into the dungeon of the giants for safe- 
keeping. The trolls had been overcome by 
other trolls who were stronger than they 
and put to death. The giants were not 
used to remembering things, and they had 
125 


King Hansel the First 

forgotten all about tbeir prisoners. Luck- 
ily, Hansel’s father had some magic food 
in his pockets, or else they would have 
starved long before. There they were, alive 
and well ; and now Hansel, the lonely little 
boy whom nobody wanted, had a father 
and mother and sister, a powerful friend, 
and rooms upon rooms filled with gold and 
silver from floor to ceiling. 

The doors of the castle keep were flung 
wide open. The sun shone in and the sweet, 
strong wind blew through and through it 
until every corner was fresh and pure. Lit- 
tle flowers began to grow in the courtyard. 
They showed their faces timidly at first, 
but soon there were great companies of 
them, bright and cheery and happy as ever 
flowers could be. Vines ran up the walls 
and peered over into the very keep of the 
castle. Some even slipped in through the 
gratings of the dungeons to see what kind 
126 


King Hansel the First 

of places they were. Night and day the 
gates stood open, for there were no ene- 
mies to be afraid of. Hansel grew into a 
tall young man, and he ruled the country 
so kindly and wisely that the people de- 
clared there never was in all the wide 
world so good a sovereign as their own 
King Hansel the First. 


6 



THE STAR PRINCESS 


















































































































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THE STAK PEINCESS 

T HERE was great rejoicing at the royal 
palace. Flags waved from every tower. 
Bright-colored silken streamers floated from 
every window. Each maidservant had been 
given a new gown and each servingman a 
broad silver piece. Little bells were tink- 
ling joyously. Soft strains of music came 
from one corner and another. The rejoicing 
was not only at the palace, but throughout 
the Island Kingdom. Men and women took 
a holiday from their work. Children went 
about the streets singing. When night came, 
every window was ablaze with light and 
every hilltop was glowing with a bonfire ; 
for the King and Queen had a little daugh- 
ter. Her eyes were as blue as the ocean, 
her skin was as white as its foam, and her 
131 


The Star Princess 
hair was as yellow as the gleam of the 
sunlight on the sand. 

By and by there was a magnificent chris- 
tening feast. Kings and nobles and princes 
and witches and magicians and fairies were 
all invited. Every one came and every one 
gave the beautiful baby Princess his very 
best wishes. 

“ The King is a happy man to have a 
child like that,” said one guest to another 
as they were leaving the palace. 

“True,” replied the other, “but he did 
not look happy. Did not you notice how 
troubled his face was and how strangely 
he acted ? When some one pushed the cur- 
tains aside for a bit of air, did you see how 
quickly he ran to the window and drew 
them together again with his own hands, 
and looked at the baby as if he was afraid 
it would disappear at a ray of daylight ? I 
am sure that he is anxious about some- 
132 


The Star Princess 

thing. The Queen is not. She is as happy 
as the day is long.” 

“I should think she would be. She 
has everything in the world that she 
wants, and not one thing to trouble 
her.” 

When all the guests had gone and the 
candles had burned low, the King went to 
the Queen and said : — 

“My Queen, I have something very sad 
to tell you. Can you bear it ? ” 

“I can bear anything with such a child 
as this,” she replied. 

Then the King said : — 

“When my father was a young, young 
man, he was so bewitched by the spells of 
a mermaid that he was ready to give up his 
kingdom and follow her into the sea. His 
councillors begged of him to leave her, the 
court magicians tried in every way to break 
her spells, but they could not succeed. While 
133 


The Star Princess 
they were waving their wands and saying 
over their charms, she lay on a rock out in 
the sea and laughed them to scorn. ‘ Go 
on,’ she said. ‘Keep him if you can. I’ll 
have his soul yet in spite of all you can do.’ 
At last all the priests in the kingdom came 
together. Each one took a great vase of 
holy water, and they walked entirely around 
the island, sprinkling the shore as they 
went. The wicked mermaid could not cross 
the ring of holy water. Day after day she 
lay on the rock by the shore, calling and 
calling the Prince to come to her ; but the 
priests had done their work so thoroughly 
that he had no longer any wish to go to the 
wicked creature. When she found that she 
had lost him, she shrieked with rage and 
anger and pronounced seven dreadful curses 
upon him. Six of them the priests could 
overthrow, but there was one over which 
they had no power, because it did not affect 
134 


The Star Princess 
the Prince himself, but his first grand- 
child.” 

“ And that is our baby ! ” said the Queen, 
clasping the little Princess closer in her 
arms. 

“Yes,” replied the King, “and the curse 
was this : If she once looks upon the ocean 
before the end of her eighteenth year, sor- 
row shall come to her and to all who love 
her.” 

The King and the Queen talked together 
sadly about what they should do to save 
their little daughter. The kingdom was one 
large island. The palace was on a high hill 
in the very middle of the island, and from 
every room in the palace the ocean could be 
seen. 

“ Couldn’t we give up the kingdom and 
go somewhere to live far, far away from 
the ocean?” asked the Queen, with tearful 
eyes. 


135 


The Star Princess 
“No,” replied the King. “There is 
no heir to the throne save our little 
daughter ; and if I should go away, there 
would be war. I have no right to bring 
war upon my people even to save my 
child.” 

All night long they talked and planned, 
and when morning came, they hoped they 
had found a way to save the Princess. A 
band of white silk was bound about the 
pretty blue eyes, and four of the most trusty 
women in the kingdom were chosen to be 
the child’s nurses. These were the orders 
that the King gave them : — 

“ Two of you must be with her by night 
and two by day. She must never be left 
alone for one moment. The band about her 
eyes must never be removed except at 
night, and then it must be replaced before 
the first ray of light in the morning.” If 
the Princess passed her eighteenth birth- 
136 


The Star Princess 

day in safety, each one of them was to have 
ten thousand pieces of gold. 

Year after year went on, and the Prin- 
cess still wore the bandage over her eyes. 
If she ventured to lay a finger upon it, she 
was punished as severely as if she had 
been the child of a peasant ; but in every- 
thing else she did exactly as she liked. 
Whatever she asked for was always given 
her and whatever she wished to have done 
was done at once. Some princesses would 
have become haughty and disagreeable, but 
this one was always kind-hearted and un- 
selfish. 

The King had made no secret of the sad 
story. Indeed, every one in the kingdom 
knew it except the Princess herself ; and 
the people loved her so much that they 
were almost as eager as her parents for her 
to pass her eighteenth birthday in safety. 
“They say her eyes are like stars,” whis- 
137 


The Star Princess 
pered the people ; and gradually they for- 
got the many names that had been given 
her when she was christened and spoke 
of her only as the Star Princess. Wher- 
ever she went, she was guarded not only 
by two of her nurses, but also by all of 
her father’s subjects who chanced to be in 
sight. She had never seen the ocean or the 
sun or had -even a single glimpse of day- 
light, and yet she was the happiest, mer- 
riest little maiden in the world. One rea- 
son for this was that she did not know that 
she was at all different from other people. 
When little girls were brought to play with 
her, their eyes were always bandaged like 
her own, and they played only such games 
as they could play blindfolded. No one 
was allowed even to mention the sun or 
the daylight or the ocean in her presence. 
“ Why do people never uncover their eyes 
until the candles are lighted for dinner ? ” 
138 


The Star Princess 
she once asked. And the nurses replied, 
“ Because before that time eyes are so ugly 
that no one can bear to look at them.” 

One day she asked suddenly, “What 
is the strange sound that we hear all the 
time? It is like murmuring and sighing 
and sobbing and singing. Sometimes it 
groans and sometimes it almost laughs. 
Nurses, what is it?” 

“It is your greatest enemy,” the nurses 
replied. 

“It must be a dragon,” thought the 
Princess, and she asked, “Why doesn’t 
my father drive it away?” 

“He would if he could,” the nurses 
answered, “ but it is stronger than he. It 
never can come any nearer, however; so 
all its groaning will not hurt you.” 

As time passed and the Star Princess 
grew older, she asked more and more ques- 
tions. “She must be amused,” declared 
139 


The Star Princess 
the King. He sent out his orders and one 
morning a great troop of workmen appeared 
at the palace with spades and pickaxes. 
They were to dig down, down, into the 
earth, for there a wonderful ballroom was 
to be made which the King meant should 
be the most beautiful one in all the world. 
The walls were of white marble, and over 
them from floor to ceiling were most ex- 
quisite traceries all made in jewels. There 
were trees drawn with emeralds and beryl, 
beds of scarlet poppies made of the clear- 
est and most brilliant rubies; there were 
roses made of pearls and garnets and topaz 
stones; there were forget-me-nots of the 
bluest turquoise ; there were violets of ame- 
thyst ; and all about and among the trees 
and flowers were birds of sapphires and 
diamonds. In this room the Star Princess 
was always safe, for not a ray of sunlight 
could ever enter it. It was anything but 
140 


The Star Princess 

gloomy, however, for when the hundreds 
of candles were lighted, it was such a blaze 
of brightness and color that one might 
almost fancy it was the very home of the 
rainbows. It was no wonder that people 
came from near and far to see the marvelous 
room, for there was not another one like it 
in all the world. Here entertainments of all 
sorts were given, for the King was ready to 
do anything to amuse the Star Princess and 
keep her from being lonely or unhappy or 
from asking questions that he did not wish 
to answer. 

At last she came to the end of her eight- 
eenth year. The next day, at precisely 
four o’clock in the morning, she would be 
eighteen years old, and then there would 
be no more danger. The King and Queen 
were so happy that they hardly knew what 
to do. There was to be a splendid ball, of 
course, on the night of her birthday, and 
141 


The Star Princess 

they had busied themselves in planning 
to make it the most brilliant fete that the 
Island Kingdom had ever seen. 

“But I should so like to have her all to 
ourselves on that day,” the Queen had said 
wistfully. “ Could n’t we give the ball on 
the eve of her birthday ? She will be with 
us and with the whole roomful of dancers. 
Nothing could possibly happen to her 
then.” 

The King was not quite pleased with the 
idea, but he had finally yielded, and the ball 
had been arranged to come on the eve of 
her birthday. 

Invitations were sent to the kings and 
queens and princes and princesses of many 
and many a kingdom, and every one was 
accepted. For seven days before the ball, 
ships whose sails were of cloth of silver and 
cloth of gold were continually coming up to 
the royal wharves. All day long the King’s 
142 


The Star Princess 

golden chariots were going and coming be- 
tween the palace and the shore to bring up 
the guests. There was music and feast- 
ing and merriment of all sorts, and on the 
evening of the seventh day came the ball. 
After all were assembled, the King led in 
the Star Princess. She was dressed in a 
gown of white, of some wonderful material 
that glowed like opals in a soft, subdued 
light and flashed like diamonds when the 
light was stronger. Her golden hair almost 
touched the floor, and gleamed like sun- 
shine. Around her waist and her neck were 
rows and rows of pearls, and above her 
forehead shone one diamond star. She was 
so lovely that more than one noble prince 
said to himself, “ She is surely a fairy. No 
mortal maiden was ever so beautiful.” 

Among the guests there was one who 
had not been invited, but who was, never- 
theless, the most welcome of all. He was 
143 


The Star Princess 
the son of the greatest king in that part 
of the world, but in his babyhood he had 
been stolen away by trolls. He had just 
been rescued and was on his way to take 
possession of his kingdom. When his ship 
came near the Island Kingdom, strains of 
music floated down from the palace, and 
there at the wharves lay the royal vessels 
of many and many a sovereign with the 
royal pennants streaming in the wind. 

“What does that mean?” the Prince 
asked. 

“It must be a great ball,” replied his 
attendants. 

“I never went to a ball in my life,” said 
the Prince; and he added with a grim 
smile, “We did not have balls in the 
palace of the trolls.” 

“Would your Highness wish to attend 
this one ? ” suggested his companions, for 
they, too, had much curiosity to see what 
144 


The Star Princess 

was going on in the Island Kingdom. “Of 
course your Highness knows that there is 
no court on this side of the world that 
would not feel honored by your presence.” 

The end of it was that the Prince, too, 
moored his vessel at the royal wharves and 
rode up to the palace in the royal chariot, 
and received a most royal welcome. He 
was presented to the Star Princess at once, 
of course, and from that moment he could 
not keep his eyes from her. He danced 
with her again and again. He seized every 
opportunity to talk with her, and she was 
very willing to listen. He told her about 
his having been stolen away by trolls. 
“But now,” he said, “I have a good ship. 
The sea is calm, the sun is bright, there is 
a fair wind, and soon I shall be in my own 
kingdom.” 

The Star Princess looked puzzled. “I 
think I can guess what a ship is,” she 
145 


The Star Princess 
said. “It must be a little like a palace; 
but I don’t know what the sea is or the 
sun.” 

The Prince stared in amazement. “Why, 
the sun is above us and it gives us warmth 
and light,” he said; “though I am sure it 
never shone so bright as your beautiful 
eyes.” 

“I have never seen this strange sun,” 
the Star Princess said. “Candles give light, 
but how can there be any light without 
them? ” 

“Can she be out of her right mind? ” 
thought the Prince. He said no more about 
the sun, but began to talk about the beau- 
tiful room and the jewels that were flashing 
and gleaming. 

The Star Princess, however, had no idea 
of dropping the subject. “But what is the 
sea ? ” she asked. “You said you came in 
your ship on the sea. What is the sea? ” 
146 


The Star Princess 

When the Prince looked into her clear, 
calm blue eyes, he could not believe that 
she was not in her right mind, and he be- 
gan in a dazed fashion to try to tell her 
about the sea. “It ’s water,” he said, “and 
it lies all around the island, and ships sail 
on it.” 

“Does it murmur and sing and sigh and 
moan and laugh?” asked the Star Princess 
eagerly. 

“Why, yes, I suppose it does,” replied 
the Prince, a little doubtfully. 

“ Then it must be the dragon,” declared 
the Star Princess. “ Surely you have seen 
the dragon. My nurses say that it lies 
around the island, but that it will never 
hurt me. Is the sea a dragon?” 

“Yes — no — the sea is just the sea,” 
returned the puzzled young Prince. “I 
can’t explain it exactly, but if you should 
look out of your window, you would see it, 
147 


The Star Princess 

I am sure. It must be in view from every 
window in tbe palace. Look out to-morrow 
morning at sunrise. The sea is beautiful. 
It is dark and blue, it is like your own 
glorious eyes. I am so eager to see them in 
the daylight.” 

“Is daylight before dinner?” the Star 
Princess asked. “People’s eyes are very 
ugly before dinner, you know ; and that is 
why they always wear bandages over them 
till the table is spread and the candles are 
lighted.” Then the Star Princess was called 
away to meet some other one of the great 
folk who had come to the ball, and she saw 
no more of the Prince. 

All night long and until three o’clock 
in the morning the dancing and feasting 
and merriment went on. Soon after three 
the Star Princess left the room, and her 
going was the signal for the breaking-up 
of the ball. The Prince lingered, and when 
148 


The Star Princess 

he made his farewell to the King and the 
Queen, he asked if he might speak with 
them on a most important matter. Of 
course they said yes, for of course they 
guessed what it was. Then he told them 
that the Star Princess had won his heart, 
and he begged of them to give her to him 
to be his bride. “I know well that I am 
not worthy of her,” he said humbly, “but 
I will do everything in my power to make 
her happy. At her slightest wish I will 
give my wealth and my life as freely as 
you would pour out this glass of water,” 
and he caught up a glass of water that 
stood on the banquet table and emptied 
it. 

The King and the Queen were glad and 
they were sorry. They liked the bearing 
and manner of the young Prince, and they 
knew that he was the sovereign of the 
richest kingdom in that part of the world. 

149 


The Star Princess 
They were glad to have their daughter be- 
come his queen, but it did seem hard that 
they should not have her to themselves for 
a while after the time had come when they 
could enjoy her without having to guard 
her and watch her so carefully. At last 
the King said : — 

“If it is the wish of our daughter, we 
will give her to you for your bride, but you 
must first leave her with us for a year and 
a day that we may accustom ourselves to 
the thought of losing her.” 

Of course the Prince could only agree to 
so moderate a condition as this. Then they 
told him the story of the mermaid’s curse, 
and that on her first day of freedom no one 
but her father and her mother were to see 
her; and he went away to wait impatiently 
until her birthday should have passed. 

Now when the Star Princess left the 
ballroom and went to her own room, two 
150 


The Star Princess 
of the nurses went with her as usual. She 
had little to say, for her thoughts were all 
on the young Prince and his words to her. 
“The sun — the sea,” she said to herself; 
“ what can they mean ? ” Then she remem- 
bered that he had said, “ Look out of your 
window at sunrise and you will see it.” Just 
what “sunrise ” meant, she did not know; 
but whatever it might be, she meant to look 
out of the window just once before the 
nurses put back the band over her eyes. 
She said to one of them : — 

“Nurse, I am so thirsty. Will you get 
me some water from the north side of the 
well that is on the north side of the pal- 
ace.” 

For a moment the nurse hesitated. Then 
she said to herself, “The servants are 
not up yet, and it would be a pity to 
call one just for this. To-day is her eight- 
eenth birthday, and nothing can harm her 
151 


The Star Princess 

now,” so one nurse started to go down the 
stairs. The other nurse was putting away 
the opal-like gown and the diamond star 
and the ropes of pearls. She stepped into 
another room for a moment, and the Star 
Princess quickly pulled the curtains apart 
and took her first look at the sunrise and 
the sea. She gazed and gazed at them. It 
was all so beautiful that she could not turn 
away, and when the nurse came back, there 
she stood. 

“0 my Princess,” the nurse exclaimed, 
* 1 what have you done, what have you done ! ” 
Just then the bell on the castle rang, “ One 
— two — three — four ! ” It was fouro’clock 
in the morning, and the Star Princess was 
full eighteen years of age. Then the nurse 
thought, “Ten thousand broad pieces of 
gold is a great deal to lose. It was only a 
moment before the time, and surely no harm 
is done. Perhaps it will never be known.” 

152 


The Star Princess 

She concluded to say nothing about the mat- 
ter, and to the Star Princess she said, “I 
thought you must have hurt yourself, and 
I was frightened. Now go to your bed and 
rest awhile, for to-day you are to be hap- 
pier than ever before.” 

The Star Princess was so used to obey- 
ing her nurses that she went meekly to bed 
and even allowed them to put the band over 
her eyes as usual ; but she was puzzled and 
confused. In that one long look she had 
found that no dragon, but a thing more 
beautiful than anything she had ever seen 
before even in her dreams lay around the 
Island Kingdom. What could it mean? 
Why had she never been allowed to see it ? 
What was that glorious light that came up 
from the blue and was a thousand times 
brighter than the candles? Over and over 
she said to herself, “Sun — sea — ship,” 
but she could not solve the mystery. She 
153 


The Star Princess 
lay as if asleep until the time came to go to 
her father and her mother. Then she heard 
the whole story of the wicked mermaid and 
the seventh curse. “Now you are free,” 
they said joyfully. She took a hand of each 
parent and roamed over the palace from 
garret to cellar, gazing from window after 
window upon the glorious ocean and the 
deep blue sky. They went out of doors, and 
she saw the trees, the flowers, and the birds. 
She watched the rippling of the waves on 
the shore. Every hour was more delightful 
than those before it. At last came the glory 
of the sunset, and she exclaimed, “ Oh, this 
is even more beautiful than the sunrise ! ” 
“But what do you know of the sunrise? ” 
her father asked gravely, and she told him 
of her one look from the window. Both her 
parents were troubled, but the Star Prin- 
cess was so happy that they could not bear 
to alarm her. Then, too, they said to them- 
154 


The Star Princess 
selves, “ It was only a moment before the 
clock struck, and surely no harm can come 
of it.” 

So the happy day went on. When even- 
ing was fully come, the mother sat with 
her arm about her daughter and the father 
told her very gently about the love of the 
Prince and his wish to make her his queen. 
“To-morrow you will see him,” said the 
King, “and if you are willing to be his wife, 
he will come for you in a year and a day.” 

It was easy to see from the face of the 
Star Princess that the Prince would be wel- 
come when he came. “We will talk more 
of this in the morning,” said the King, as 
he kissed his daughter good-night. 

The Star Princess went to her own rooms, 
and after her maids had left her, she was 
alone for the first time in her life. She drew 
aside the curtains and stood gazing upon 
the ocean in the moonlight. She listened 
155 


The Star Princess 

to its music. At first it seemed to murmur 
peacefully to itself. Then she fancied that 
it sobbed and moaned. Then she heard 
clearly a sweet voice that called, “ Come 
to me, come, maiden, come to me ! ” It was 
a richer, more exquisite melody than she 
had ever heard before; and as she listened, 
she found herself answering, “Yes, I will 
come, I will come.” She went softly down 
the stairs and out of the door. Every one 
else in the palace was asleep, and no one 
hindered her. She slipped down the hill- 
side in the shadows and went nearer and 
nearer to the shore. The voice still called. 
Sometimes it was low and gentle, some- 
times it was loud and strong; but whether 
low or loud, it drew the Star Princess 
toward it as if it were a magic cord. She 
followed it along the shore until she found 
herself on a steep cliff that towered far 
above the sea. The waters beat upon the 
156 


The Star Princess 
rocks at its base, the breakers boomed and 
thundered; but out of all the wild uproar 
still came that enchanting voice, calling, 
“Come to me, come to me, come, come!” 
Straight to the very edge of the cliff went the 
Star Princess. For a moment she thought 
of her father and her mother, of the Prince 
who was coming in the morning to tell her 
of his love, and she drew back; but the 
voice called with a bewitching sweetness 
and charm, “ Come, Star Princess, come.” 
She held out her arms and answered, “ Yes, 
I come,” and sprang from the edge of the 
cliff. 

A triumphant howl rang out above all 
the roaring of the waters : — 

“ I have you now, grandchild of a faith- 
less prince, and you shall pay the forfeit 
of his falseness. You did not see the ocean 
for eighteen years, but you shall see it 
now.” And the cruel mermaid, for she it 
157 


The Star Princess 
was who had bewitched the Star Princess 
and drawn her from her home, laughed so 
savagely and unpityingly that the heart of 
the maiden almost ceased to beat. 

She was alone and in the hands of the 
wicked mermaid. “ Oh, my father, my mo- 
ther ! ” she cried. “My Prince, my Prince, 
save me, save me ! ” But the mermaid 
clutched her roughly and dragged her to 
the palace of her son, the merking who 
ruled the waters for leagues around. 

“ Here is the grandchild of the man who 
scorned my love,” she shrieked. “What 
shall she suffer ? By what death shall she 
die?” 

The merking looked upon the Star Prin- 
cess. Her eyes were cast down in fear, her 
hair was wild and tangled, her cheeks were 
pale, and she trembled with fright, but 
even then she was beautiful, and the mer- 
king said : — 


158 



“ SHE IS FAIRER THAN ANY OF MY MAIDENS 































































































































































































































































































* 


























































































' 




























































The Star Princess 

“ She is fairer than any of my maidens. 
She shall not be put to death to-day. I 
will have her for my wife, and when I am 
tired of her, then you may torment her 
and kill her as you will. Come with me, 
earth maiden.” 

“ Oh, no, no,” cried the Star Princess. 
“Let me die! I will never be your 
wife.” 

“It is far too noble a fate for her,” 
grumbled the cruel mermaid. “ Such as 
she should not have honors like that. Will 
you be my son’s bride or will you not ? ” 
she demanded. 

“ Oh, no, never, never! ” answered the 
Star Princess, with a shudder. 

“ Then you shall be tormented with such 
tortures as you never dreamed of,” cried 
the mermaid angrily ; and she caught hold 
of the Star Princess to drag her away. 

“Not yet,” interposed the merking. 

159 


The Star Princess 
“You know how to give hard tasks. Give 
her a task or two, and she will be glad 
enough to be free from you and come to 
me.” 

“Tasks she shall have,” declared the 
mermaid, “and such ones that she will 
plead and beg to come to you. Come, earth 
creature,” she called ; and, clutching her 
prisoner, she dragged her away to a horri- 
ble cavern full of sea-monsters. To one of 
them she said, “ Go with the earth creature 
and do not let her out of your sight.” Then 
she turned to the Star Princess. “ My son’s 
throne needs jewels,” she said. “Go, and 
within three days bring me ten thousand 
pearls.” 

The Star Princess was in despair ; but 
it was worse, she thought, to be the bride 
of the merking than even to have the 
dreadful sea-monster for a jailer, and she 
followed him meekly. 

160 


The Star Princess 

“Where do you intend to go?” he 
asked. 

“Indeed, I do not know,” she replied. 

“ Then you may as well stay here,” the 
sea-monster said, with a horrible grin. 

“ Oh, I don’t dare,” moaned the Star 
Princess. “ What shall I do! what shall I 
do! ” 

Even the sea-monster could not help 
being just a little sorry for her, and he 
said grimly : — 

“ You can come this way if you like. It 
is better than staying there.” And she 
followed him gladly, for anything was bet- 
ter than staying with the merking and his 
mother. 

As they went on through the water, she 
noticed a little sculpin that seemed deter- 
mined to go with them. It was ugly, in- 
deed, but it kept between her and the 
sea-monster, and she was grateful. Some- 
161 


The Star Princess 

how she felt that the little creature was 
her friend ; and when it came nearer and 
even touched her hand, she did not draw 
back, but was glad of its company. 

After a long, long while, the sea-mon- 
ster stopped before a bank of jagged 
rocks. 

“There are the pearl oysters,” it said, 
“ thousands of them. Perhaps you can get 
them to give up their treasures.” The 
creature laughed scornfully and added, 
“You can’t get away very well, and I shall 
take a nap. Wake me when you get your 
pearls.” 

The Star Princess was in despair, but as 
soon as the monster was fairly asleep, the 
little sculpin had something to say. 

“Star Princess,” he whispered, “I was 
once stolen by trolls.” The Star Princess 
started, for her Prince, too, had met the 
same fate. “When I was rescued,” con- 
162 


The Star Princess 
tinned the sculpin, “the troll was forced 
to make me thx-ee gifts. One of them was 
that I should have the power to persuade 
all honest creatures of earth, air, and 
water to do my will. This ledge is covered 
with oysters, and I think they will gladly 
give you their pearls.” He swam close to 
the ledge and spoke softly to the oysters. 
In a moment pearls were falling like rain- 
drops. The Star Princess picked them up, 
and there were far more than ten thousand. 
She carried them back to the mermaid, 
and the mermaid cried : — 

“ So you got the pearls, did you? That 
was an easy task. How did you like your 
journey ? You shall have another to-mor- 
row^ 

When the morning had come, the mer- 
maid said : — 

“ I wish to know how many grains of 
sand there are on the beach that lies to 
163 


The Star Princess 

the north of my son’s kingdom. One of 
my creatures shall take you there, and if 
you do not count aright, then at the end 
of three days you shall lose one of those 
blue eyes that you are so proud of. A 
wooden one is good enough for a girl who 
cannot use what she has.” 

The Star Princess was put in the charge 
of a sea-monster far more horrible than the 
one that had gone with her before. “I 
shall have to show you the way to the 
beach,” he said, “but you ’ll get no other 
help from me, understand that.” 

The Star Princess was in despair, for the 
friendly sculpin was nowhere to be seen, 
and how could she ever count all the grains 
of sand on a beach. When they had come 
to the shore, she took up a handful of sand 
and tried to count the grains, but of course 
it was hopeless. 

“ You may as well kill me,” she cried 
164 


The Star Princess 

to the sea-monster, “for I cannot do 
this.” 

“ Oh, the mermaid will kill you in her 
own way. You need not fear that she will 
leave you alive,” retorted the sea-monster, 
and grinned at her most horribly. “Go to 
work. For three days you are to count 
grains of sand ; but be quiet about it and 
don’t disturb me.” In two minutes the 
creature was fast asleep. 

Suddenly the Star Princess heard all 
around her a gentle rustling, as if the soft- 
est of the breezes were touching lightly the 
tiniest leaves of the forest. In a moment 
she found that it was made by thousands 
upon thousands of little sand fleas hop- 
ping toward her. “ Our friend, the sculpin, 
has asked us to help you,” they said, “and 
we have been counting as fast as ever we 
could. Lie down and rest, and in one hour 
longer, the task will be done.” 

165 


The Star Princess 

When the third day had come, the sea- 
monster took the maiden back to the 
mermaid. 

“ How many grains of sand are on the 
beach ? ” the mermaid demanded. 

The Star Princess told her, and she had 
to admit that it was the right number. 
She was very angry to find that the task 
had been done, and she actually shrieked 
with rage. Then she cried, “Will you marry 
my son, you wretch, or will you go on an- 
other journey ? You need not think that 
you will get off from this one so easily. 
Will you marry him?” 

“No, I will not,” declared the Star Prin- 
cess ; and she would not yield even when 
the mermaid gnashed her teeth in a fury and 
screamed, “You shall have a task to-morrow 
that is a task. This is only child’s play.” 

When morning had come, the mermaid 
said : — 


166 


The Star Princess 

“ The sharks once rebelled against my 
son, and he has never punished their leader 
as he deserved. Go you to the Waters of 
the Sharks, take their king prisoner, and 
bring him to me to pay the penalty of his 
rebellion. One of my people will show you 
the way.” And she pointed out a sea-mon- 
ster more dreadful than both the others 
put together. 

The monster led the way, and the Star 
Princess followed. “ Oh, if I could only see 
my father and my mother once more,” she 
thought. “How could I think the voice of 
the mermaid was sweet! I should be so 
happy if I were only the lowest servant 
in my father’s house. And the Prince — I 
wonder — ” 

“ Here you are,” said the monster; “ that 
is, you are as near as I intend to go. I ’m 
not going to risk my head and fins in the 
Waters of the Sharks. I ’ll wait here till the 
167 


The Star Princess 

third day, but I rather think the sharks 
will save me the trouble of carrying you 
home.” 

Now while all this was going on in the 
Water World, there was the deepest amaze- 
ment and sorrow in the Island Kingdom, 
for the Star Princess had disappeared. In 
the morning of the second day of her nine- 
teenth year, her maids waited and waited 
for her call. At last they went to her door. 
It stood ajar, and they could see that she 
was not in the room. “She is so happy 
in being free,” they said, “that she has 
slipped out into the palace gardens to 
see the world in the early morning.” So 
they searched the gardens through and 
through. They ran hither and yon, and 
looked into every corner of the palace ; 
but no Star Princess was to be seen. 
Then they went to the King, weeping 
168 


The Star Princess 

and wailing and wringing their hands, 
and cried : — 

“ 0 your Majesty, the Star Princess has 
disappeared! Oh, oh, what shall we do! 
what shall we do! ” 

The royal guests were still at the pal- 
ace, and in three minutes every one of 
them had heard the distressing news. Then 
began a search that was a search. Every 
corner, every crack of the great palace was 
looked into, not only once but over and 
over, for each one thought that he might 
perhaps see something that the others had 
passed by. Then the gardens were searched 
and the forests and the fields. All the sub- 
jects of the kingdom gave up their work 
and joined in the hunt. Every inch of the 
seashore was gone over and over, until it 
seemed as if some one had looked under 
every blade of grass and into every mouse- 
hole. They went to the cliff, of course, but 
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The Star Princess 
the light steps of the Princess had left no 
trace, and they could not even guess what 
had become of her. 

The King was heartbroken, and the 
Queen lay on her bed, moaning her life 
away; but the young Prince was even 
more wretched than they. “ Her father and 
mother have had her all those eighteen 
years,” he said to himself, “but I have 
found her only to lose her again.” 

After the Island Kingdom had been 
searched through and through, the King 
sent out every ship in the navy to look 
for his child, and all the stranger kings 
and princes whose ships lay at the royal 
wharves put out to sea to try to find the 
Star Princess. They sailed north and south 
and east and west, but they all came back 
with lowered flags and the same report, 
“We cannot find her.” 

The days passed. The royal guests bade 
170 


The Star Princess 
farewell to the sorrowing King and Queen 
and sailed away to their own kingdoms, all 
but one, the faithful young Prince. “ I can- 
not leave the place where I first met her,” 
he said to her parents. “Will you let me 
stay with you fora time?” Of course they 
were only too glad to have him; but one 
morning the young Prince, too, was miss- 
ing. He had vanished from the Island 
Kingdom as suddenly as the Star Princess. 
It was known that he had left his rooms 
in the palace late in the evening ; but this 
was a thing that he often did, especially on 
such moonlight nights as the one on which 
the Princess had vanished. So many times 
he had been seen pacing to and fro on the 
sand that no one thought of watching him 
or of noticing when he returned to the 
palace. 

After he, too, disappeared, the beach 
was searched as closely as it had been for 

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The Star Princess 

the Star Princess. The print of his foot- 
steps was seen and they were traced up 
and down the sand, then to one side toward 
a high hill. On the path up the hill, little 
twigs had been broken, and here and there 
a leaf had been bruised and crushed ; and 
so it was known that he had climbed to the 
top of the hill. He was traced still far- 
ther, to the very edge of a cliff that over- 
hung sharp rocks and a wild commotion of 
breakers. The people looked upon them 
sadlyand shook their heads. “Poor Prince,” 
they said, “his love for the Star Princess 
has made him mad and he has flung him- 
self over the cliff.” But one sage old man, 
who had seen many strange things in his 
long life, shook his head and muttered, 
“Not madness but magic.” 

If the breakers that beat on the base of 
the cliff had chosen to speak, they, too, 
would have said, “Not madness butmagic.” 

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The Star Princess 
The Prince had gone out on the shore, as 
he so often went, and that night he heard 
the same sweet voice that had called the 
Star Princess into the sea. “ Come to me, 
come to me,” it cried, now low and sweet, 
now loud and strong, but ever so powerful 
that even the Prince could hardly resist it. 
Suddenly, in the midst of the strength and 
the sweetness, there came a wail that tore 
his very heart. “ My Prince, my Prince,” it 
said, “ save me, save me!” And without a 
glance behind him he sprang straight off 
the cliff and into the raging sea. 

“Aha, now I have two of you ! ” shrieked 
the mermaid with fiendish delight. Then, 
when she looked upon him more closely 
and saw how tall and noble and beauti- 
ful he was, she hesitated. “I will not tear 
you limb from limb,” she said. “ I have a 
daughter who will soon take a husband, 
and if she chooses you, you may live.” 

173 


The Star Princess 

“ I will have no false mermaid for a 
wife,” declared the young Prince, as boldly 
as if he had still been in the palace of the 
Island Kingdom. 

“ You will not? ” shrieked the mermaid. 
“ How dare you insult my daughter, you 
earthborn creature ! ” She waved her hands 
to and fro before his face. His eyes closed, 
and for a moment he was in a deep slumber. 
When he awoke, the mermaid had gone. 
He was alone, but he was no longer a hand- 
some young prince; she had put upon him 
the form of a sculpin. 

Prince or sculpin, he had but one 
thought, to find the Star Princess ; and he 
swam as rapidly as he could, first in one 
direction, then in another, until he came 
in sight of the Waterworld den where the 
mermaid and her monsters dwelt. It was 
just at the moment when the mermaid 
was sending out the Star Princess and 
174 


The Star Princess 

the sea-monster to find the ten thousand 
pearls. 

‘ 1 1 cannot rescue her yet, ’ ’ said the Prince 
to himself, “but at least I can save her from 
the torments of the mermaid.” So he kept 
out of sight until the mermaid had gone 
back into her den. Then he hastened after 
the Star Princess, and it was he who had 
kept between her and the monster and who 
had persuaded the pearl oysters to give her 
of their pearls. It was he, too, who had in- 
duced the sand fleas to count the grains 
of sand for her. She did not know this, 
and she had seen no more of him after 
her first journey. Now she stood in terror, 
gazing into the Waters of the Sharks. The 
horrible creatures swam about and dived 
and rolled over and showed their sharp, 
white teeth. The Star Princess was in 
an agony of terror. She could not run 
away, for the sea-monster was behind her, 
175 


The Star Princess 
and he was almost as dreadful as the 
sharks. 

“Go on,” he cried mockingly. “Tell 
them you want their king. The earth-girl 
who will not marry our merking is only fit 
for sharks’ food.” 

The Star Princess looked so pitiful and 
so beautiful that even the sea-monster was 
as nearly touched as a monster could be. 
He muttered, “It is rather a pity to have 
her eaten up.” 

Then he called to her : — 

“Girl, earth-girl, if you will agree to 
marry our king, I will take you back with- 
out the shark, and if she is angry, I think 
I know a way to save you.” 

“Oh, no, no,” she replied, shuddering. 
“I can never marry the merking.” 

“Then go on and be devoured by the 
sharks,” growled the monster, “but you 
may as well be about it. If you keep me 
176 


The Star Princess 

waiting much longer, I will eat you my- 
self.” 

The Star Princess turned toward the 
Waters of the Sharks. As she gazed in 
terror, she saw the ugly little sculpin com- 
ing toward her, and behind him swam the 
whole company of sharks. 

“Don’t be afraid,” the sculpin called as 
they swept by. “Only wait. You are safe.” 

The Star Princess waited. She was all 
alone in the vast ocean, for at the coming 
of the sharks, the sea-monster had fled for 
his life. She covered her eyes with her 
hands for fear she should see something 
dreadful; but it was not long before she 
felt a soft touch. It was the friendly scul- 
pin. “ Come quick,” he said. “There is not 
a moment to lose. The sharks are fight- 
ing the merking and his monsters. Follow 
me. Do not be afraid, I can find the way, 
for the second gift of my troll jailer was 
177 


The Star Princess 
that I should never fail to find the place 
that I sought.” 

The little sculpin swam to the land 
faster than ever sculpin had swum before, 
and the Princess ran after him faster than 
ever princess had run before. She dared 
not glance behind her for fear of seeing 
some of the horrible creatures. At last they 
were so far away that the sculpin knew 
there was no more danger of pursuit. They 
had come to the shore. There he stopped 
and said: — 

“Star Princess, now you are safe. Rest 
for a little and then you shall go home to 
the palace of the Island Kingdom.” 

The Star Princess burst into tears of 
joy. “You have saved me,” she cried. 
“What shall I do for you ? My father is a 
king and he will give you whatever you 
ask. He will build a wall around an ocean 
for you if you wish and drive away from 
178 


The Star Princess 

it every creature that would trouble you. 
He will — ” and there she stopped, for, 
try her best, she could not think of any- 
thing else that would be at all likely to 
please a sculpin. 

The ugly little fish replied : — 

“Star Princess, my rightful home is not 
in the sea, but on the land. I was born in 
a palace larger and more beautiful than 
that of your father. I fell into the hands 
of the wicked mermaid, and she threw over 
me the sculpin form that I now wear.” 

“ My father has wizards and magicians at 
his court,” cried the Star Princess eagerly, 
“and surely some one among them can free 
you from the mermaid’s power.” 

“I am under a power that you alone 
can free me from,” declared the sculpin. 
“ I am the sovereign of a kingdom larger 
and richer than your father’s. I am but a 
little older than yourself. They tell me I 
179 


The Star Princess 
am handsome. You can free me if you will 
stroke my head three times and say — ” 

“And say what? ” cried the Star Prin- 
cess. 

“And say, ‘I promise to marry you as 
soon as we have come to my father’s 
palace,’ ” the sculpin answered. 

“Oh, no, no,” cried the Star Princess. 
“I will do anything but that. I will give 
you everything I have, and when the king- 
dom is mine, you shall have that, too, and 
I will go out into the world and beg my 
bread, but I cannot marry any one except 
my own Prince.” 

“And are you so sure that he will care 
to take a portionless bride?” asked the 
sculpin. 

The maiden looked down upon the sand, 
then out upon the water, then she answered 
softly: — 

“ Even if he refused me, I could never 
180 


The Star Princess 

marry any one else ; but,” she added, “ I 
am sure that he will want me.” 

“ So am I,” said a manly voice behind 
her, and, behold, there stood the Prince 
himself, for the third gift of the troll was 
that no magic should have power to change 
his form against his will. He had kept the 
form of a sculpin for a while because he 
knew he could be of more service to the 
Princess in that shape. They sat down on 
the yellow sand, and he told her the long, 
long story of his love and his sorrow, of 
his remaining in her father’s kingdom that 
he might at least be near the place where 
he had first seen her, of his pacing up and 
down the shore and thinking of her, and 
at last of his springing from the cliff be- 
cause he was sure that he heard her voice 
crying, “My Prince, save me, save me! ” 
“But look about you, my Star Prin- 
cess,” he said. “Do you not know this 
181 


The Star Princess 

shore and this cliff towering over our 
heads ? These waves beat upon the coast 
of your father’s kingdom. Come, let us go 
to the palace.” 

He took hold of her hand and led her 
across the sandy shore, up the little hill, 
over a grassy meadow where flowers 
sprang up wherever they stepped. Then 
they went through the woods, where the 
pathway was soft with pine needles and 
the air was rich with fragrance, and so on 
to the palace of the King. 

At one of the upper windows stood 
the Queen, gazing sadly over the water. 
The King was by her side. His arm was 
thrown around her, and he seemed to be 
trying to comfort her. The Prince and the 
Star Princess waved their hands to them ; 
but they were looking far out to the hori- 
zon, and the wanderers were up the hill 
and into the palace and close beside them 
182 


The Star Princess 

before they had any idea that their lone- 
liness was at an end. 

Such a welcoming as there was ! The 
Queen wept for the suffering that they had 
all been through, and she laughed for joy 
that they were together again. Everybody 
in the kingdom had a whole year of holi- 
days. The prisoners were set free. There 
were feasts upon feasts for all who chose 
to partake of them. The grass was greener, 
the flowers were brighter. There were such 
blue skies and such soft little clouds as 
had never been seen over the land before. 
The birds no longer stayed in the forest, 
but came freely into the city. They perched 
upon windows and fences and balconies 
and sang more sweetly than ever birds 
sang before. 

After a year and a day of this rejoicing 
came the wedding of the Prince and the 
Star Princess. Just as the wedding pro- 
183 


The Star Princess 

cession was setting off for the church, 
some one noticed a great sea-turtle toiling 
up the hill to the palace. 

“ I want to see the King,” he called, 
waving a flipper to call his attention. 

The procession waited till the turtle had 
come up the hill. Then the King went for- 
ward cordially, and said : — 

“You are welcome, Friend Turtle. Have 
you come to the wedding ? ” 

“Yes,” the turtle gasped, for he was not 
used to climbing such high hills, and he 
had not yet fully caught his breath; “but 
I have something to say to you. I have 
just come from the Waterworld, and I 
have brought you some news.” 

“And what is that?” cried the King 
anxiously, for even now he was afraid of the 
power of the cruel mermaid. 

“The war is ended,” said the turtle. 
“The merking, the mermaid, and all their 
184 


The Star Princess 

monsters are killed and devoured. Neither 
you nor your Queen nor the Prince nor the 
Star Princess has an enemy on the land or 
in the sea.” 

Then the bells throughout the whole 
kingdom rang for joy, the drums beat, the 
trumpets blew, and the banners waved, all 
of their own accord. 

“Bring another chariot,” ordered the 
King. Another chariot was brought, and 
the turtle was helped into it. It took its 
place just behind the bridal party, and they 
all rode away to the wedding. 


THE END 


(STbe 

CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 


u 


S . A 



SEP 15 1913 







V 1 


• • •.« 






* 












